WASHINGTON — At 1 foot 9.5 inches tall, and 31 pounds, Chandra Bahadur Dangi held the Guinness World Record as…
Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Dangi, walks in a guesthouse just hours before he was to be measured by officials, in Katmandu, Nepal, on Feb. 26, 2012. Guinness World Records officials named him the world’s shortest man.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha
The shortest man ever, Chandra Bahadur Dangi met the worlds tallest man, Sultan Kosen for the very first time on Nov. 13, 2014, in London, England. Chandra from Nepal measured 21.5 inches, while Sultan from Turkey measured 8-foot-3.
(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Dangi, while being measured for the Guinness World Record in 2012.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha
Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Dangi, 72, poses with his certificates after being declared the world’s shortest living man and shortest man ever by the Guinness Book of Records, at a ceremony in Katmandu, Nepal, Feb. 26, 2012. AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
(AP/Niranjan Shrestha)
AP/Niranjan Shrestha
Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Dangi looks at a copy of the Guinness World Record book at a guesthouse just hours before he was to be measured by officials.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
WASHINGTON — At 1 foot 9.5 inches tall, and 31 pounds, Chandra Bahadur Dangi held the Guinness World Record as the shortest full-grown man in the world.
Dangi died Thursday at the age of 75, after being admitted with pneumonia to the Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center in Pago Pago.
The native of Nepal became a local hero in 2012, when Guinness found and verified Dangi as the world’s shortest man ever, replacing 1 foot 10.5 inch Gul Mohammed, who died in 1997.
Dangi was a member of the Magic Circus of Samoa.
The owner of India’s well-known Rambo Circus, Sujit Dilip, said his circus “is flooded with tears at the loss of the world’s smallest man…whom we lovingly called Prince Chandra.”
Dangi was two inches shorter than Junrey Balawing of the Philippines, who in 2012 had been been considered the shortest living man. Balawing will return to the top spot, according to the Huffington Post.
In 2014, Dangi traveled to London, where he met the world’s tallest living man, 8 foot 3 inch Sultan Kosen of Turkey.
Dangi said it had been a lifelong dream to travel, which was realized when he became a Guinness title holder.
“It makes me extremely proud to represent Nepal all around the world,” Dangi said last year.
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.
