Home to the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, Nepal yesterday added another height-related superlative — of having the world’s shortest man.

Pilloried by neighbours, laughed at in freakshows, and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Chandra Bahadur Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse.

A poor Filipino blacksmith’s son who stands less than two feet (60 centimetres) tall was declared the world’s shortest man by Guinness World Records on his 18th birthday today, sparking a celebration in his hometown