Tiny Chandra to see fame grow due to record

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.

However, the 72-year-old Nepali, who claims to stand at just 56cm (or 22 inches, which is roughly the height of this broadsheet page), is on the brink of life change as significant as a lottery win as experts prepare to test his claim to be the shortest man in history.

Until now, Junrey Balawing from the Philippines has held the title of the world’s smallest living man with a height of 59.93cm.