When Jim and I were in Bali a few years ago, we watched young girls practicing traditional dances and were amazed at how graceful their hand motions were. I've seen this kind of dance often in Thailand at special events, and I've just learned that in order to achieve this graceful look, the girls' fingers are wrapped with elephant grass at a young age. Their hands are forced to bend backward which creates the unusual and beautiful curve when the hand is unwrapped. The process is incredibly painful and takes many years to achieve a permanent curve. 
This is a simlar to what many young women endure in the Burmese Padaung Karen tribe, or Long-Neck Karen. This effect is created by adding multiple rings periodically that elongate their necks by deforming their collarbones and pushing their shoulders down. They have become an object of curiosity for both Asian and Western tourists. 
There are a couple of reasons why Karen women originally wore the heavy solid copper rings around their necks. They believe in spirits and believe that the tiger spirit may come in the night and bite their neck without this shield, just as snake spirits will bite their legs without the leg wraps. [See photo of Akha woman.] They also submitted to this "decoration" as it was felt that the longer their necks were, the more beautiful they are considered...Often these young women now are used to bring tourist dollars into the villages. There are some Long-Neck Karen villages along the Thailand border and have been described by many as one of the closest things in Asia to a human zoo.Disclaimer: I did not take these photos.
