Aid and Trade

Wholesale Price:     $64.09

Our porcelain long neck karen hill tribe girl doll is a hand painted porcelain doll dressed in authentic clothing of the karen hill tribe. The cloth used to make her clothing is hand made by hand by the karen hill tribe and is the same material they use to make their own clothing. Our porcelain dolls are made near bantawi just south of chiang mai, thailand where they specialize in traditional hill tribes and thai style porcelain dolls. The authentic costumes of the hill tribe dolls depict the dress and the jewelry of each hill tribe which is uniquely different and reflects their own cultural diversity. The karen is one of the ten hill tribes found in northern thailand. The karen are mostly found in the mountains bordering thailand and myanmar (burma). The long neck karen have an interesting cultural tradition of applying brass rings around the necks of females. This is done once a year from an early age until the early 20s. Though this practice gives the appearance of an elongated neck, the brass rings actually depress the collar bone. Though a centuries old cultural practice, with fewer and fewer families practicing the long neck tradition, it is not likely the karen will continue to create long neck women much longer. The karen typically build their houses above the ground on a downhill slope at lower elevations than most other hill tribes. The area under the house is used for social gatherings, relaxation and work such as pounding rice into meal and weaving cloth for clothing. Like most buddhists, the karen honor and respect their elders. Display stand included.