Unmarried girls wear loose white V-necked blouses, decorated with Jobs tear seeds at the seams. Married women wear blouses and skirts in bold colours, predominantly red or blue. Men wear blue baggy trousers with red or blue shirts, a simplified version of the women s blouses. Black Karen men wear black shirts with a red cummerbund or head scarf. Karen houses are not usually large, Adult children usually leave the home when married - there is no extended family housing in most Karen villages.
Houses are on stilts, made of bamboo or teak.
Central steps lead to a porch, with a storeroom or kitchen to one side, a living area, and bedroom on the other. Beneath the house is a working area, often with foot-operated rice ponder. The Karen have a matrilineal society so that two married women cannot live in the same house. In some villages, the punishment for adultery is death. The village chief has great power over his community, and is regarded as the spiritual as well as the administrative Oleader.