Yeah, I know I’ve posted a few pictures of the Padaung Karen Hill Tribe people before. Even though I’ve only visited them a few times during my travels in Thailand, I admit to being fascinated by the reasons why they wear the rings around their neck and arms. In addition to the perceived added beauty of the rings, they told my wife that they also wear the rings to protect themselves from tiger bites (don’t know if this is really true or not).
One of the moral dilemmas I’ve run into is that some people claimed that some of the participants are forced to wear the rings for the benefit of tourists, something that would make me very upset.
Damon Billian has spent a fair amount of time traveling through Thailand, where he has a wife and home on the lovely island of Phuket. In addition to spending a fair amount of time in Southeast Asia over the past five years, Damon has worked as a Community Evangelist for companies like PayPal, SimplyHired, Mint, Tokbox and CloudFlare. Damon’s primary hobby, when he isn’t working 60 hours a week, is cultural and animal photography.
