The suri tribes is a village close to Ethiopia they are 10,000 inhabitants in the village. These people have been known for practicing a very painful ritual which they view as a means of beautifying themselves. Now take a good look at the picture above,if you look closely you will see something like a plate put inside the lip therefore stretching the lip to reveal the plate. All suri women undergo these practice . it's a very painful practice to onlookers but to the suri women it's a form of making themselves beautiful.
A question alway comes to your mind when you look at these people and that is "how are these plates inserted?" well have no fear because we are going to discuss that right now.
HOW ARE LIPS STRECTHED AND PLATES Inserted?:
The stretching of a suri woman lip is normally carried out 6 months before getting married and it may interest you to know that they get married when they are 16 years old so the stretching of the lips occurs when they are 16 years.
During the initiating of the plates the front Incisor of the teeth are knocked out then a wooden disc is placed in the lip. The the ritual is mostly performed by the mother of the child.
The inserting of the wooden disc involves a lot of bleeding and pain. At first after breaking the front teeth the lip is stretched and a small wooden disc is placed then after three weeks when the wound has already healed another bigger one is placed and so on and so forth until the lip is very very wide to fit the biggest wooden plate
Now take note that a suri woman does not view the stretching of their lips as something abnormal or some kind of abuse
The suri women are very proud about their stretched lip, they are even the one that decorate the wooden plate that will be placed on their lip and they do this with pride.
These people do not only stretch their lips, they also stretch their ears which seems very very painful. The pain is usually very intense but the most surprising thing is that they are always happy and proud about their stretched lip.
imagepicture source from Facebook. Com:A stretched suri's woman ear.
Besides stretching their lips these women also paint their body white. They view their body as living canvases and draws various patterns on their body.
WHEN WILL THIS FORM OF BODY ART END?? :
Governments in Ethiopia has been putting pressure on the these people to abolish the practice of stretching their lips and earlobes. The suri people have also come to realize that they will soon start having economic and social pressure from neighboring villages because of their crude and painful rituals. People around will not want to associate with these ones.
However tourist are the ones keeping this tradition alive because they travel a long way to these villages and take photographs of these people lips and ears. The suri people have also come to realize that posing for pictures can earn them money so whenever a tourist want to take a photograph of a suri woman the tourist will have to pay them money. Due to the fact that tourists always go to these village have been able to keep the suri people practicing their ritual knowing that it can generate money for them
However the practice of stretching of the lips and ears is so painful and the government in Ethiopia are doing all they can in order to stop this practice.
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