Kayan people (Myanmar)

Uncommon card · No. 199078

The Kayan are a subgroup of the Red Karen (Karenni people), a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Myanmar (Burma). The Kayan consists of the following groups: Kayan Lahwi (also called Padaung, ပဒေါင် [bədàʊɰ̃]), Kayan Ka Khaung (Gekho), Kayan Kadao, Kayan Lahta (Zayein people), Kayan Ka Ngan, Kayan Kakhi, and sometimes, Bwe people (Kayaw). They are distinct from and not to be confused with the Kayan people of Borneo. Padaung (Yan Pa Doung) is a Shan term for the Kayan Lahwi (the group in which women wear brass neck rings). Kayan residents in Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand refer to themselves as Kayan and object to being called Padaung, as corroborated by Khin Maung Nyunt in The Hardy Padaungs (1967). On the other hand, Pascal Khoo Thwe calls his people Padaung in his 2002 memoir, From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, due to conflict with the military regime in Myanmar, many Kayan tribespeople fled to Thai border areas. Among the refugee...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Steve Evans, CC BY 2.0