Tourists flock to see the women, whose necks are encased in brass rings from early childhood. But rebellion is brewing in the so-called human zoos where they live as virtual prisoners. It began when Zember, 21, decided to cast off the brass rings. Contrary to what guides tell tourists, her head did not collapse on atrophied muscles; but mutiny by the most photographed woman in Nasoi Kayan Tayar village has provoked spectacular results.

Bitter arguments exploded between young and old generations, the Thai businessmen who run the camps were furious and worried, and a new role model was born for a generation of disgruntled women.

When they arrived a decade ago as refugees from Burmese army offensives ravaging their homeland, the Kayan people meekly accepted their role of being photographed by tourists. Their daughters, however, have grown up to question the humiliation of their tribe. Billboards showing the women’s necks are on roadsides all over the north. They advertise exotic sightseeing for Thai and foreign tourists alike in hill-country villages — in reality refugee camps that the women are forbidden from leaving — along the Burma border.

According to different legends the brass coils were to protect wearers from the bites of tigers in their jungle home in Karenni state, or began as a tribute to a dragon-mother progenitor. At about the age of 6, girls are allowed to choose whether or not to put them on. Wearers say that they are not uncomfortable, although their weight forces the shoulders down, making the neck look longer.

Zember, whose hand darts constantly to her bare neck, admits that taking off the rings was a difficult decision.

Business has fallen off at her souvenir stall and her family no longer has the payments that women receive for wearing the coils, a fraction of the profits made from selling entry tickets to tourists.

She said: “I want to keep my people’s traditions but we are suffering because of these rings. We are denied education and the authorities will not let us go abroad, although some of us have been invited to leave for Finland and New Zealand.”

Without work papers or citizenship, the Kayan have little say over what happens to them. They also face a plan to move their villages to a remote location on the border with Burma, where they believe they will be at risk from bandits.

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