The Karen people now live in a "village" about 40min car ride north of Chiang Mai downtown. Their neighbours are the Tiger Kingdom, Elephant park, Elephant poo paper factory and other tourist attractions. Yes, the Karen folks are just like the animals people pay to see, except they "live independently" with "dignity".
Upon arriving at the village, everyone will have to pay $500 baht as entry fee. Upon entering it, you will find yourself walking into a souvenir village. You know, that's not what I really mind, because behind these vendor stands that fill your eye sight are really run down shacks that are in no way what one will consider as modern living. They are simply huts made out of bamboo, wood and leaves as roof tops. I doubt there is electricity or running water, with thrash to the side and nothing on the ground but bare hard dirt.
As we walked further in, we then saw the Karen folks. You see, only the females will have to wear the metal rings and supposedly, the more ring the more beautiful they are. This reminds me of the wrapped-foot tradition in ancient China where girls are only seen as beautiful if they have small feet. Anyways, since only females wear those rings, only the females have tourist value! And all I could see were females, from little girls to grandmas. Oh I saw a boy, but certainly not a man. It seems that the men are either hiding somewhere napping, or perhaps out to work for the extra dollar.
When we approached one of the stalls and asked if we can take a photo of them, they just said "Buy $100", telling us that we should buy an item for them if we want photos taken as well. We did. That's their main way of making a living. Other than some of the weaved fabric, most of the souvenirs sold there are cheap, low quality imports from China. I guess this is how everything here works. People come with the main interest in taking photos, so instead of charging for each photo taken, they sell items in exchange. However they cannot sell expensive or high quality items because tourists will not pay that much for a photo. $100 baht for each photo seems to be a reasonable price, and I agree. Economy is such a weird thing.
There's a hot topic in Taiwan now about turning "culture into profit", here's exactly how! What irony.
Little girl showing a bit of mood when her mom nagged at her.
Grandma proudly said,"30 years!" pointing at her rings.
Lazy afternoon.
Also on the side is another shack that seems to be a "school" where the local Karen kids go to for a limited numbers of hours a week, and a donation box right in front of it. Not that I don't want to help, in fact I'd love to be involved in a real effort to help them live better, I just had a lot of doubts if this is just another stunt to get tourists to donate more.
The Karen people have every bit of my respect. They are just like any other Thai I've met so far. Kind, welcoming and very positive despite the hardship and tough reality they live in. We crossed path, and I hope someday I can do something much more significant for them other than paying the $100 baht.
No comments:
Post a Comment