A MysteRious Tradition

Visit to Long neck tribe at Huai Suea Thao village on the Thai Burmese border.

- Murli Menon

The mystery of traveling to an unknown destination is like learning a new language. One reads numerous dictionaries, books, and even "Learning Languages for Dummies". After mastering a few short sentences, you locate a native speaker to practice speaking and start parroting your rehearsed lines.

As your sparring partner stares blankly at your monologue, you do not know how your accents have turned out to be and if what you said was what was understood or whether you made a complete fool of yourself by mispronouncing niceties as insults!

One is writing this from his thatched-roof hut on stilts inside Huai Suea Thao village on the outskirts of Mae Hong Song district on the Thai-Burmese border.

This village is nestled on the edge of a steep cliff, overlooking several mountain streams that rush down to meet the Pai River flowing through Mae Hong Son. One is surrounded on all sides by mist-covered evergreen coniferous pine forests at an altitude of 5000 feet above sea level.

The natural beauty of the surroundings is breathtaking. Every bit of the landscape is covered with teaks, pines, conifers, oaks, and birches stretching their arms as far as eyes can see. The buzzing sound of the flowing mountain streams and waterfalls are soft music to one’s ears throughout the night. One wakes up at dawn awakened by the natural alarm calls of wild roosters living on the edges of the jungle.

Even in the twilight hours in early November, one can see the mist hanging heavily on the mountain tops. One also comes across a few scattered clouds that have descended on your hut made entirely of palm leaves, coir, and bamboos.

There is no electricity in this tribal village populated by the Kayan tribe who has lived in these forests since centuries.

Elongated Neck