The border of Myanmar and Thai stretch for 1310 miles. In ancient time two countries had relation in commerce for years. Kayah State is situated in the middle east of Myanmar. Kayah State has dense forests. It is a rocky region and transportation is the most difficult matter. The area is approximately (4820) square miles and the population was (70491) by the 1941 census. So the land is thinly populated at the rate of 15 persons living in a square mile.
         According to the background history of the Kayah State, it remained an area set aside from ministerial Burma, but remained under separate forms of administration even under the British rule for a long time. It may be due to the effect of the treaty set up in 1875, between the British and The Burmese Kingdom that the Kayah State was to remains an Independent state. The treaty was respected by the British even after Burma was annexed. Therefore Kayah State became theoretically at least an independent state, but in practice it was reduced to the status of a protected or feudatory state. During that period the Bombay Burma Trading Company and its associate Mac Gregor Company were able to extract the timber from Kayah State without any permission. Only in 1947 it decided to throw in its lot with the Union of Burma at the final stages of constitution drafting.
         The inhabitants of Kayah State are Kayah, Padaung, Paye , Yinbaw, etc. Most of them are Christian. They live chiefly by farming and logging. Of the ethnic groups living in the Kayah State, the Padaung people are quite a different people. Their ways of living is quite distinctive and different from other people. In the book “The novel on the back ground of Kayan (Padaung)” written by Ko Oo, there were detail facts about them. For instance if a person die, it is their custom to put one coin into the mouth of a dead person, before they bury the body. Besides, if the dead person is a man they wrap the body thoroughly with cloths and blankets, and put a hoe, chopper, cross-bow etc, into the coffin together with the dead body. If it is a woman they put things as a bamboo tray, a bamboo basket as well as all her belongings into the coffin and bury them altogether with her.
          According to their cultural they used to put around their neck with long shiny brass coils as shone on the left photos. Though they are backward, they are simple and hospitable. Today at the Myanmar-Thailand (on the side of Thailand) some Thai tour companies invite the Padaung villagers, erected the long neck's village for them to live and at the same time they were shown as tourist’s attraction. In the late of 19th century when Burma was under the British rule, British’s Bombay Burma Company made Ywar Thit (new village) as it base and started logging work. Teak and hard wood trees were growing flourishingly. Teak logs were floated down the Than-lwin (Salwin) river. Finally all the logs gathered at Martaban gulf were transported to India by steamers. While Bombay Burma Company was producing timbers in Ywar Thit village of Kayah State, Japanese aircrafts bombed Rangoon, the capital town of Burma, on December 11th and 25th 1941. Japanese troops from Bangkok entered Burma and occupied Moulmein on January 31st 1942, which locates on Martaban gulf. So Bombay Burma Company stopped it logging and withdrew to India. Before withdrawing to India, Bombay Burma Company gave a casket that contained an 1804 silver dollar and 1804 copper one dollar to padaung foreman of Kayah State. Moreover many villagers also received some U.S. rare coins and India rupees. Due to their contribution of help and hospitality of the villagers the Bombay Burma Company gained many profit.