The longer, the more beautiful

How having long neck makes you look beautiful? Well, as a Malay, I’ve always seen a woman with long neck to be physically attractive, in which you refer her to have ‘leher jinjang’. But, what beautiful long neck is for “giraffe” tribe in eastern Burma or Myanmar, is certainly does not fit the image of being beautiful in my mind.

A Burmese woman with long neck
Credit to  Google

These women with long necks are from Padaung tribe, a subgroup of the Karenni which in turn is a subgroup of the Karen. “Padaung”, in the Shan anguage means “long neck”. The coils around their necks are actually made from brass and gold alloy. These women start wearing the coils as early as 5 years old, and as they get older, they add up more coils to their necks. It’s like spending long years of your life having something around your neck. Aarghh…I just can’t imagine if I were to be one of those women.

Girls start wearing coils around their neck at the age of 5.
Credit to Google

For them, having long neck is the symbol of wealth, position and beauty. Apart from being a beauty tradition, it is also said that many myths or histories lie behind the long-neck custom. Some said that wearing brass coils around necks in the past functioned to protect Padaung women from tigers, as they bite people’s necks. Others claim that it made them resemble the myth dragon, but it is also claimed that long necks were intended to make them look less attractive, hence they are likely to be taken as slaves in the past. Ironically, today’s Padaung women who still practise the coils wearing tradition tend to have long necks to preserve the tradition, and to look more beautiful!

However, one thing you need to know is, having long necks for this tribe is only an optical illusion. As the coils are added, they actually push the women’s collar bones and ribs down. It looks like they’re having long necks, but actually they only painfully compress their shoulders and collarbones, rather than stretching their necks. They go through the pain to achieve the standard of beauty in their tribe. These women with long necks can’t lean their head’s back, so they drink from straws. A British journalist who interviewed the 'giraffe' women, said that their voices sound as if they were speaking from the bottom of a well.

Guys, let's watch a video about these 'giraffe' women.

  

Horrifying 'Lotus Feet' in China

Foot binding is a beauty ritual practised in China for more than 1000 years before it was outlawed in 1912. For the last 1000 years, it's estimated that approximately 4.5 billion women had been subjected to this painful art.

Foot binding in China has been outlawed in 1912 since the practice harmed the Chinese women
Credit to www.bbc.co.uk

In ancient China, the ideals bound foot are:

• A foot should be no longer than 3 inches. (A perfect 3-inch foot is called 'a lotus of gold', 4-inch foot is considered 'silver', and for a foot of more than 4 inches, it's called 'iron lotus') Ermm, every China girl that time would aim for gold I guess, not silver or iron.
• The cleft between the heel and the sole should be 2-3 inches deep
• The foot should be an extension to the leg rather than a stand for the body

Can you imagine this? 3 inches basically equals to less than 9 cm. People often said I have small feet, but I'm nothing for sure compared to these Chinese women with bound foot. Hehe. I actually took a ruler to measure my foot, and mine is 20.5 cm! :O

'Lotus feet' is a symbol of beauty and elegence
Photo by Jo Farrell

Binding the feet was one of the main avenues for women in China to find a husband or marry into money
Photo by Jo Farrell

The foot binding ritual begins with the clipping of the girls' toenails and the soaking of the feet either in hot water or herbs, nuts, urine and warm animal blood. This is to soften the tissue and bones of the feet to facilitate manipulation. All the toes on the feet, save the big one are broken and folded under the sole and then the toes are bound in place with a 10'x2'' silk or cotton bandage. These wrappings are removed every two days to allow the washing and manicuring of two nails to avoid infection, but after that the feet are wrapped tighter again. Lastly the arch of the foot is also broken and the foot is pulled straight with the leg. The shoe sizes are also gradually reduced to accommodate the shrinking feet.

And...the pain won't stop here. The girls would also have to walk long distances with that bandaged, broken feet, so that their own weight crushes the feet into shape. Occasionally, the flesh of the foot is also cut, or sharp objects maybe inserted in the bandage to encourage 'excess' flesh to rot away so that smaller feet can be achieved. After 2 years of excruciating pain, the girls will get tiny feet of lotus shape, but since the feet naturally will grow, they may need to do the process for additional 10 years or so to ensure that the toes stay in place. Arghh, pity them much!

Small-sized shoes of a woman with bound feet
Credit to Google

Here I include excerpts from When I was a girl in China, stories collected by Joseph Rupp, told by a few women with bound feet:

"It is extremely painful to bind, and at first it makes you sick...changing the colour of your skin all over your body, even on your face. You don't feel like eating for quite some time and you're unable to walk at all - I had to wait at least a year before my toes were broken under and the arch was pushed up at least two inches." - Li Xiu-ying

"When I first started binding, it was very painful...so much that I couldn't sleep at night. I was still able to walk, though. Many girls suffered more than I did. When I couldn't stand the pain any longer, I would secretly loosen the bindings; when my mother found out she wouldn't get angry or scold me. She had bound feet, too, and understood how much it hurt. She would let me keep the bindings loose for a while, but I always had to wrap them up tightly again.I would wash and rebind my feet every day - it had to be done that often because the binding cloth gets caked with blood and pus." - Su Lian-qi

Zhou Guizhen, 86 says that she regrets binding her feet. "But at the time, if you didn't bind your feet, no one would marry you," she says.
Photo by Louisa Lim, NPR

Here I include a video for you guys to watch:

Ps : I was actually grimacing and gritting my teeth endlessly while writing this entry. Ouchh!  

Blue lips of Maori people

Now, I would like to bring all of you to another adventure of beauty story. Have you guys ever heard of Maori people?

Maori people during a cultural event. Maori are the name of indigenous people of Polynesian descent in New Zealand, a beautiful island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean
Credit to Google

Maori people practice a painful beauty ritual which is ‘Ta moko’ . ‘Ta moko’ - traditional Māori tattooing, often on the face - is ataonga (treasure) to Māori for which the purpose and applications are sacred. Every moko contains ancestral / tribal messages specific to the wearer. These messages tell the story of the wearer's family and tribal affiliations, and their social level. Among men who are considered as Maori warriors, tattoos or ‘moko’ will usually be applied on the whole face. Women wear moko on the face too. A woman's moko is worn on the chin, as well as occasionally appearing on the forehead, upper lip, nostrils, and throat.

Tatto on the face of a Maori woman
Credit to Google

Maori people believe that women are attractive when their lips and chins are tattooed. A woman with full, blue lips considered the most beautiful and desirable. Knowing about tattoos, you might know that making them is certainly painful. Imagine forcing the needles into the skin to insert ink into the puncture, for 30 minutes or longer, because the process can take hours. Ouchh! That’s if it’s on your skin, what about having them on your lips? I can’t imagine the pain.

Tatto for Maori women is usually applied on the lips and the area on the chin and symbolises beauty
Credit to Google