Portraits of Kayaw women (Burma).

I went to the Loikaw region (capital) in the state of Kayah in Burma in April 2018 and then in November 2019.

In this region, on the border of Thailand, live many ethnic groups. The main ones are the Kayah, Kayan and Kayaw.

For me it is especially this last ethnic group that I find really interesting to meet. The reason may come indirectly from the fact that the Kayaw villages are those which are furthest from civilization and therefore among the most “difficult” to reach. It takes two and a half hours to meet the Kayaw in their villages from Kalaw. In certain villages one sees and guesses also a significant rotation of the groups of tourists. This is noticeable in the attitudes of women who hasten to put their clothes on in sight of tourists. The natural then runs away …

But in the village of Hte Khu one has the impression that life retains its naturalness.

Nothing has really changed in a year and a half between these two visits. Some faces have taken a little wrinkles, the children have grown. There are always animals, pigs, chickens, dogs that populate the area under the raised houses of bamboo stilts.