Marked for Life
The untold story of beauty and identity of Myanmar’s Southern Chin Women — and a myth unraveled
by Jens Uwe Parkitny
Their beauty is mythical and how the Chin women lost it became a legend. Often told, it features all the typical characters that make up a good story: pretty, young, innocent girls that live in the forests upon the hills and an evil king that lives in the plains and sends out his men to raid their villages, in search of the most beautiful females. In order to stop the abduction of their girls and women, the Chin communities that were exposed to the marauding troops started to “mark” the faces of the young girls, once they reached puberty. With rattan thorns, symbols and patterns were “tapped” into the dermal tissues of the face to deliberately destroy their beautiful appearance. The king soon lost interest and his men were never seen again in the villages. The tattoo tradition, however, lived on, until fairly recently: in 2005, I met a young Laytu Chin woman with a beautiful facial tattoo, in the hinterland of Western Rakhine. She was 17 years old and only tattooed five years earlier. She never heard of that king-raiding-Chin-villages story for being the reason of her tattoo, by the way.
Historically, there is no evidence existent up until today, that any of the kings ruling in the territory of today’s Myanmar has systematically raided Chin villages in the plains or in the mountains.
It is the most common storyline of almost every half-hearted explanation of why the women of certain Chin groups that dwell in Southern Chin State, Western Rakhine and in a few villages and towns in Magway Division started the practice: to make themselves “unattractive” to outside intruders. The king, of course, is portrayed as a Bamar king in most hearsay, and the whole story therefore has a political dimension and reflects a victimized viewpoint. Historically, however, there is no evidence existent up until today, that any of the kings ruling in the territory of today’s Myanmar has systematically raided Chin villages in the plains or in the mountains.
As a matter of fact, quite the opposite seems to be true. The British commissioner Edward Tuite Dalton, made in charge of the classification of Bengal’s and Assam’s ethnic groups during the second half of the 18th century, thus, reported that the enslavement of women and children of other tribes was quite common among the Kheyngs [Chin] and related groups in Arakan’s [Rakhine State] heartland: “The men get killed, the women and children are abducted and forced into slavery” (Dalton 1872, reprinted in 2007). Alice M. Hart, also known as “Mrs. Earnest Hart”, second wife of British journalist Ernest Abraham Hart, wrote about “the savage” Chin, after a trip to Burma in the spring of 1895, that they were “constantly occupied with raiding the lowlands to obtain cattle and spoils as well as Bamar women and children, who were kept as slaves, but were seemingly treated well” (Hart 1897).
The Deputy Commissioner of British Burma and late Superintendent, Major W. Gwynne Hughes, who was actually stationed in the Arakan Hills from 1871 till 1880 (except in the years 1875 and 1876), observed that “the Chins of the Arakan hills are far wilder and more retiring than any other of the tribes…”(Hughes 1881).
All cultures, that practiced or still practice facial tattooing in one form or the other, perceive it as “beautiful”, as “beauty enhancing” and “status elevating” rather than “defacing”.
The widespread myth about the Chin women and their facial tattoos has one other very significant flaw: a story view-point of a beauty ideal that is inline with mainstream western culture, where a facial tattoo is still considered a taboo and is not widely accepted. “They made themselves ugly to deter the king from kidnapping them…”, is the common saying — and the common error.
All cultures, that practiced or still practice facial tattooing in one form or the other, perceive it as “beautiful”, as “beauty enhancing” and “status elevating” rather than “defacing”, concludes Dr. Lars Krutak, a world leading tattoo anthropologist (Krutak, 2007).
Other experts such as the late anthropologist F.K. Lehman casted doubt on this “we-made-ourselves-ugly”-theory as well, because “Chin people believe the tattooing does not disfigure but enhances their beauty.” (Lehman 1963)
The Southern Chin groups in Myanmar would therefore have been the only ones worldwide, introducing female facial tattooing for a defensive purpose, an “ugliness-sation”-strategy for their entire female stock, so to speak. And that simply doesn’t make sense, if compared with what is known about other tribal groups that still practice or have practiced the permanent “marking” of the faces of their young women through tattooing or incision. The practice was widely spread among hill tribes across Asia and could be found on all continents where humans settled (Krutak 2007).
Major W. Gwynne Hughes observed: “ In accordance with the custom of all tribes of the Chin family, the faces of their women are tattooed, the thing being done as a rule with some ceremony at the age of puberty.”
Hughes was familiar with the reasons that other writers before him attributed to the practise of tattooing among the hill tribes:
(1) in order, by disfigurement, to prevent their women being carried off to the harems of the Burmese high officials;
(2) to enable to recognize their own women carried off in raids, and to conceal the women of other tribes carried off by them”
For him, this reasoning was not conclusive at all, because if “…either theories rested in satisfactory grounds, it would be reasonable to suppose that other adjoining tribes would likewise have adopted the custom, though on the score of female beauty, which is as lamentably conspicuous by its absence among the Chins as among the hill tribes generally, there is certainly no cause for resorting to the practice as a means of preventing their women being carried off as concubines to the Burmese Court. “
Despite the fact that his remarks on Chin womens beauty perceptions are not only not-politically correct in post-colonial times and rather reflect the British Empire view and attitude, but also incorrect: just look at some of the young Chin women and how attractive the tattoos make them look! It is remarkable though that he comes up with his own theory of why Chin groups dwelling in regions adjacent to those of the “Bama”, practiced facial tattooing.
Major Hughes: “… it seems to me most probable that tattooing was adopted by them in imitation of the Burmese, and not especially invented for the purposes indicated in the above two theories; for against the acceptance of either stands the fact that there are no greater raiders than the tribes adjoining these Chins, viz., Shandoos, Kamees, and Upper Pin Mroos, none of whom practice tattooing.” (Hughes 1881)
The practice serves complex purposes that can only be fully understood when looking into all aspects of culture as well as social-interactions and functions within the group and their traditions and believes. Facial markings and other body modifications in tribal societies are literally “Marks for Life” that helps a particular group to stick together, to function orderly and to survive in harsh environments.
Facial markings and other body modifications in tribal societies are literally “Marks for Life” that help a particular group to stick together, to function orderly and to survive in harsh environments.
Each and every pattern of a facial tattoo among the different Chin groups is therefore a visual expression of belonging and identity, of the ability to endure pain, of having mastered different stages in live, of being a full member of the community with duties, privileges and status, of a particular beauty perception and — last not least — of a certain spiritual and super-natural believe. After all, a facial tattoo is like a permanent mask, and, while ritually applied, this mask is super-charged with protective charms that are meant to defend off evil spirits, in life — and maybe even in the afterlife. (Krutak 2007; 2012). Some groups of the Naga, linguistically related to the Chin, believe that their ancestors cannot recognize them if they do not bear the ancient tattoo marks on their face and forehead (Saul, 2005). It is therefore possible that some of the Chin groups followed a similar believe.
The first known portraiture of a Chin woman with a facial tattoo was published in 1800 by Major Michael Symes, who was sent on a mission to Burma by the Governor-General of India, Sir John Shore, in order to secure protection for British subjects from the Emperor of Ava, King Bodawpaya, in 1795. Together with a support crew including a botanist and a painter, he traveled the kingdom and wrote a detailed account of his experience and included many illustrations of monuments and people (Symes, 1800).
Already more than 200 years ago, the meaning and purpose of the facial tattooing was not a knowledge that was preserved among the Chin.
It was on November the 9th in 1795, probably one of these “Burmese days”, with an impeccable blue sky, that he met a “Kyan” [Chin] woman with a full facial tattoo and asked his painter to make a drawing of her and her husband, both dressed in their typical attire. This encounter made a lasting impression on him: ” …but the most remarkable part was her face, which was tattowed all over in lines mostly describing segments for circles. This ceremony, which in some other countries is performed on the parts of women not publicly exposed, among the Kyan is confined wholly to the visage of their females, to which, in the eye of an unaccustomed beholder, it gives a most extraordinary appearance….”. He asked the origin of the custom and recorded that “…this they did not know, but said it had existed from time immemorial, and that it was invariably performed on every female, at a certain age.” In other words: already more than 200 years ago, the meaning and purpose of the facial tattooing was not a knowledge that was preserved among the Chin. The practice, I assume, is therefore older than a few hundred years and might even date back a thousand years or more.
Not much is known about the Chin tattooing ritual that was practiced by around half (as estimated by the author) of the 53 officially recognized Chin groups in Myanmar. Assuming that Southern Chin groups that got in contact with colonial administrations as well as with Buddhist and Christian missionaries, stopped the practice sooner rather than later. Some of the groups that practiced tattooing seem to have already vanished. In 1906, Sir J. George Scott described a tattoo design consisting of “ tattooed horizontal lines across the face” for a Yindu group that already ceased to exist (Scott, 1906). Also, the facial tattoo of “lines mostly describing segments for circles” that Major Michael Symes spotted on a Chin woman in 1795 is not a hallmark of any of the known Chin groups today.
I dare to speculate that all groups that settled in Southern Chin State and Rakhine practiced facial tattooing and that includes all Ashö Chin groups.
Experts on indigenous tattoos, such as the American tattoo anthropologist Dr. Lars Krutak, believes that the “marking” of a girl was celebrated in a fashion similar to that of the Naga People, who live further North of the Chin (Krutak 2009): with the sacrifice of a mithun (Bos frontalis), a domesticated cattle or gaur that plays a significant role in offering rituals among all ethnic groups of the mountainous regions in Northeast India, Eastern Bangladesh and Western Myanmar, including Chin and Naga people.
Forehead and cheeks are tattooed first. Pricking the part around the mouth comes next. The eyelids are done at last and it is a very delicate work that requires utmost concentration and craftsmanship.
U Bhutaung , a devote Christian Yindu Dai man that lives with his two (facial-tattooed) wifes in Hlaing Doh village, explained to me elements of the tattoo ceremony in 2014: it all begins with welcoming the tattoo master at home early in the morning, at sunrise, and present him a white chicken in order to get him into the right mood. Freshly cut rice paddy and a chicken egg are placed by his side to please the spirits. If too much blood is dripping down the face of the girl that is being tattooed, the egg is rolled over the intense bleeding section to stop the bleeding. Forehead and cheeks are tattooed first. Pricking the part around the mouth comes next. The eyelids are done at last and it is a very delicate work that requires utmost concentration and craftsmanship. It’s rare that Yindu girls were able to sustain hours of tattooing and though some did, the majority did it in stages. As Lucian and Christiane Scherman correctly stated already in the beginning of the last century: “The procedure started at an early age and often lasts a number of years.” (Scherman 1922)
In fact, within some of the groups (ie Yindu Dai and Hmoye), it was allowed to do the tattoo in phases of up to two years or longer. The determining factor was the pain threshold of each woman. Some of the women I spoke to underwent up to ten sessions within a year to complete the tattoo. Others, such as the Laytu, didn’t allow their girls to have a choice and they were fixed on the ground so that the tattoo master (females only so it seems in the case of the Laytu; male and female in the case of the Yindu and Ubtu) could do the work in one single session that could last up to eight hours. Yindu tattoo masters that completed a full facial tattoo were rewarded highly: five arrows, one cotton blanket, one glass beads necklace, one basket full of raw cotton and one cotton ball. Other Chin groups such as the Ubtu paid with Indian Silver Rupee coins as well as with food and free-flow of millet wine.
Interestingly, the tradition of female facial marking is only found among those Chin groups that settle in the Southern parts of Chin State, in the West of Rakhine, particular along the Lemro River, and in the neighboring areas of the Magway Administrative Division. Neither the groups in Northern Chin State nor those that live in Bangladesh (where they are called “Zo”) or India are related to the custom. Why this is the case and why this tradition has evolved and continued to survive only in a fairly small region within Myanmar up to the last decade defies any scientific explanation.
This is also true of the symbolism used by the various groups, which includes dots (Matu Chin), patterns made up of vertical lines and dots (Yindu Dai, Ng’Gaah), rune-like symbols (Mün), more complex, mandala-like designs (Laytu, Hmoye, M’Khan, Sungthu, Sutu or Songlai) and even completely blackened faces (Utbu or Ubun). So far, scientific interpretations of these symbols have been successful only to a very limited extend. They are based on comparison with figures, ornaments and shapes that find a use in the material culture of different groups, such as in the outstanding woven textiles which are highly appreciated by collectors and museums. The Y-shape like rune tattooed on the forehead of Muen Chin Women (Mindat and Kanpelet townships) might be a direct reference to the Y-posts used by the very same Chin group in animal scarification rituals. Suhtu (Sone-Glai), Laytu (Laitu) and Sunghtu (Sone-Tu) have a sun like symbol tapped on their forehead, with fine lines radiating from it, covering the entire forehead. The tattoo tradition and rituals certainly date back to times where the respective Chin groups operated within an animistic belief system and worshipped nature spirits. The sun might have played a dominant role in this.
One also has to admire the craftsmanship of the tattoo masters that applied complex patterns and customized them to the individual features of a young woman’s face. I only met one living, female Laytu Chin tattoo master (“Sayamah”) in a small village called Taung Gyi in Western Rakhine in 2005. According to her, she stopped the tattooing ten years earlier, in 1995. Though she knows the pattern, she didn’t know the meaning of it, except that the round, crossed circle on the forehead represents the sun. Its perfectly round shape is drawn with a bamboo or coin. Interesting to note that her own daughters, teenagers at the time, had no tattoos and preferred to apply lipstick and Thanakha, the grinded bark of the Thanakha tree (Limonia accidissim), mixed with water to a paste and applied on the cheeks, to enhance their beauty.
If Chin women are asked about the specific meanings of their tattoos, they usually answer “because it makes us beautiful” and “because all the other women in our village have them as well” or simply “because it is our tradition”. Since only oral history was used among the various Chin groups to transfer myth and knowledge, the specific meanings of the different tattoo patterns and symbols seem to have gotten irretrievable lost over time. The exact meaning of their “Marks for Life” therefore remains a mystery.