Connecting You To The Trending International And Entertainment News.: Pictured: Meet the women who wear rings around their necks as a sign of beauty... oops

These remarkable pictures show the ‘giraffe women’ of eastern Burma.

These Kayan women, from Kayah state, wear brass coils around their necks to give the impression that their necks are stretched.

Having a long neck is often seen as beautiful in Kayan culture.

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The Kayan women of eastern Burma wear brass rings around their necks to make them appear longer

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They can start wearing the rings from the age of five and tend to add more rings as they get older

While the neck rings make the women’s necks appear long, in reality, the weight of the coils pushes down the muscles around the collarbone and compresses the rib cage - meaning their necks appear longer than they are.

The women – who can start wearing the rings from the age of five - have a long piece of brass wound in a spiral around their necks.

The metal is wound manually by the women and, as brass is tough, this process can take many hours.

A full set of the neck rings can weigh as much as 10 kilos - but few of the women now wear a full set.

Most women gradually increase the number of coils on their rings to steadily increase the apparent length of their necks.

Despite the weight of the rings, the women wearing them experience little restriction to their movement.

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The rings do not actually stretch the women's necks - the weight pushes down their collarbones and compresses their rib cages making their necks appear longer

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The women can remove the rings but they tend not to as it can be uncomfortable and the skin underneath tends to be discoloured

And, as the coiling and uncoiling process takes so long, the women rarely remove the rings – they usually only do so to replace them with a longer version.

The coils can be safely removed even though the muscles underneath are weakened.

However, many women prefer not to have them removed as their necks and collarbones are left bruised and discoloured underneath and they suffer discomfort when they are removed.

Additionally, when they have been wearing the rings for a long time, many of the women say they feel they have become an integral part of their bodies and they feel 'naked' without them.

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The rings are made of long pieces of brass that are wrapped around the neck to form coils

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Many of the women say that if they remove the rings they feel naked and vulnerable

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It is not known why the women started wearing the rings but there are many theories

After a few days of not wearing the rings, the discomfort fades, but the discolouration tends to remain.

It is not clear exactly how the tradition of wearing the neck rings came about.

There are theories that women wore them to protect against tiger bites or that they were worn to make them look more like the dragons of local legends.

Other people believe they started wearing them to make themselves less attractive to other tribes so they were less likely to be taken into slavery.

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Some people believe women originally wore the rings to protect themselves from tiger bites - other people think they were designed to make them unattractive so they were less likely to be taken into slavery

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Now, most of the women wear the rings because they are seen as beautiful and to preserve the tradition

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Some women wear the rings because they attract tourists and tourists bring vital revenue to the community

However, when asked, most of the women will now say they wear them to preserve their cultural identities.

Kayan women are usually now given a choice as to whether or not they want to wear the neck rings.

Most of those who still do, do so because they see them as beautiful or because they want to preserve the tradition.

It is also likely that some wear them because they attract tourists who bring vital revenue to the community.