World's shortest man declared in Nepal Home to Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, Nepal has added another height-related record to their collection – that of world's shortest man.

A Guinness World Records team measured Chandra Bahadur Dangi at 21.5 inches (54.60cm), declaring the 72-year-old even shorter the previous title holder, Junrey Balawing, from the Philippines, who stood at 23.5 inches at the age of 18 last year.

"The good news is that Chandra Bahadur Dangi is the world's shortest living man," Guinness Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said after measurements were taken.

"If he is really 72 years old he is the oldest person to be awarded the shortest-man record," Mr Glenday said, adding Mr Dangi was also the shortest person ever measured by the Guinness World Records.

From a poor and uneducated family in a remote part of Nepal, Mr Dangi said he had never heard of Mount Everest and was unaware of the world record title before a timber merchant visited his remote village last month and decided to measure him.

His diminutive size has since made him a celebrity in the impoverished nation of 26.6 million people and he took a plane for the first time last week to travel from his village, Rimkholi, 167 miles west of Kathmandu, to meet the Guinness World Records officials in the capital.