Having a long neck is often seen as beautiful in Kayan culture. 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. When asked, most of the women will now say they wear them to preserve their cultural identities.