We are visiting Daw The Mgu, a Red Karin village of about 100 families near Loikaw in Kayah State, Myanmar. The Red Karin are animist and believe they are descended from two large birds that flew over the mountains. The male bird is Karin Na Ye and the female is Karin Na Yar.
Most of the women no longer wear traditional dress, but one young woman dons hers to show us. This takes time and involves three helpers. As well as the red scarves wound around women’s heads, their capes are red. Silver was once plentiful here and they wear long silver earrings, the favourite style being a bunch of (scaled- down) sweet corn cobs and we see necklaces of silver coins, some of which depict England’s Edward VII. The Red Karin women wear a beaded belt around their midriff, and a long white scarf reaches from the neck to the knee. Over the knee they wear coils of cotton threads dyed black with lacquer.
We ask to meet the oldest person in the village to see if he or she would like some spectacles we have brought with us. Daw Phye Myas thinks she is about 95. Her five children would like her to go and live with them. She won’t, because she likes her traditional house and can continue looking after one of her daughters, who is about 65, and has mental health problems. She tries the glasses but says they are of no use; we then discover her eyesight is so good she can still thread a needle. (Courtesy of The Australia)
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