My name is Moh Khara; I am 67 years old. My husband died a month ago. I have 5 children. Now I am living by the Inle Lake. In my hometown we were just farmers, and we had a hard life. When we came to the lake, we started to make knitwears and sell them to the tourists. My income differs according to the number of tourists visiting.

According to our culture, women who have long necks are more beautiful and attractive. I started to wear 13 rings at the age of nine. The number of the rings increases as our people get older. When I was  seventeen, I was wearing 14 rings. At the age of twenty, I reached the maximum number of rings that could be worn - 25. There are two different, separate parts in a ring. The rings are made of solid bronze and are worn as one piece. When you reach the number of 25 rings, the total weight of them is 10 kg. There is one extra ring for sleeping, and when we sleep, we turn the rings to the front side, but normally we wear them backwards. No matter what, we never take off the rings for our entire life. 

The color of my dress is our traditional color. I think that I look beautiful with my dress and the rings. 

Moh Khara
Inle Lake, Myanmar, 20 January 2019

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more stories.
 

My name is Emmanuel Hung. I am 28 years old. I live with my family in one of the villages in Nagarinaro, North Tanzania, which is called Arusha. I make my living by selling jewellery at the beach.

One day, I will leave my family to get married, of course. But before this, I have to fight against a lion and I have to kill it. Can you believe this? Once I have killed it, this means I am brave enough to marry more than one woman. As a Maasai man, I want to continue my life in polygamy like almost every other man in my tribe and ancestors. Please pay attention to my emphasis on the word “man”, since polygamy is forbidden for women. What can we do, this is our tradition.

Oh, I should tell you about jumping as well, it is not only our traditional dance but also I hope jumping higher will help me to pay less money to the families of my future wives to get their permission for marriage. As you may guess, I am continuously working on jumping to reach the highest level I can.

I am looking forward to have minimum 5 children as soon as I have married. I want them to have an education unlike me, and I want them to live their lives better and easier than mine and my family’s.

My other expectations from my life and future is to have a car (I do not know how to get it actually.), to watch a movie, and to visit many European countries before I die. I am not sure if I can achieve all of my dreams, but I should keep dreaming.

Emmanuel Hung
Zanzibar, Tanzania, 16 June 2018

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more stories.