At 21.5 inches in height, Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the new shortest man in the world as of February 2012. He beat Junrey Balawing of the Philippines who held the record last year at 23.5 inches in height.

At his current height, Chandra is the shortest man ever recognized by Guinness having beaten Gul Mohammed of India who was the shortest adult human to have their height verified by Guinness. Mohammed was 22.5 inches tall and died in 1997. Chandra is the second Nepalese to hold shortest man world record – Khagnedra Thapa Magar was the first one.

Chandra grew up in a remote village of Nepal. Because his height, he stay at home most of his life and needs assistance to move around. His parents died when he was still in his teens, and now lives with his brother who do not know when he stopped growing and for what reason.