Photographer Prakash Mathema follows Chandra Bahadur Dangi from his remote village in Nepal to the capital Kathmandu.

KATHMANDU - Home to part of Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest in the West, the scenic country of Nepal on Sunday added another height-related superlative - of having the world's shortest man.

A Guinness World Records team measured Chandra Bahadur Dangi at 54.60 centimeters (21.5 inches), and declared the 72-year-old the new record holder. He was even shorter than the previous title holder, Junrey Balawing from the Philippines, who stood at 23.5 inches at the age of 18 last year.

Pilloried by neighbors, laughed at in freak shows and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse.

"If he is really 72 years old he is the oldest person to be awarded the shortest man record," Guinness Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday told reporters after measurements were taken. Dangi was also the shortest person ever measured by the Guinness World Records, he said.

Dangi, who scrapes a living weaving the naamlo, a traditional jute band used as a head strap for carrying heavy weights, has already become something of a celebrity in southern Nepal.

From a poor and uneducated family in a remote part of the country, Dangi said he had never heard of Qomlangma and was unaware of the world record title before a timber merchant visited his 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 after traveling from his village, Rimkholi, 267 kilometers west of Kathmandu, to get to a rural airport.

He met the Guinness World Records officials in the capital.

"I am good. I feel happy," Dangi said holding two framed certificates . "I want to travel around the world and spread the name of my country."

Dangi, whose parents died when he was still in his teens, lives with his brother. He says he has no desire to marry.

His family has no idea when he stopped growing as many Nepali villages still lack basic health care. Dangi has never seen a doctor in his life. Five of his brothers and two sisters are of normal size.

Before Balawing, who was declared the shortest man in the world in June last year, another Nepali man, Khagnedra Thapa Magar, who stood 67 centimeters tall, held the title.

He Pingping of China, the record holder before that, was officially verified as the shortest living man who was able to walk unaided at 74 cms. He died at the age of 21 in March 2010.

Reuters - Agence France-Presse