KATHMANDU A man who may have been the world's oldest person died in his village home in eastern Nepal yesterday at the age of 141, police and officials said. Bir Narayan Choudhury died at his village of Khanar, in the Sunsari district of East Nepal, they said. A medical doctor has been sent to the village to ascertain the exact nature of his death, district administrative officer Shambhu Ghimire told Reuters by phone from Inaruwa town, near the village.

Ghimire said Choudhury, who swore by his diet of pork, milk, yoghurt and rice, would be cremated according to Hindu rites on Tuesday. Nepal's King Birendra last year presented one of Nepal's top awards to Choudhury as a mark of respect. In 1996, Choudhury told the Kathmandu Post newspaper: Oh, God! It's too long a life. I am tired. Choudhury may have beaten the record of Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died last year at the age of 122.

However, his name never went into the Guinness Book of World Records since he did not have any document to prove his date of birth. Registration of birth and death is not compulsory in Nepal, where basic health facilities are still lacking and the average life expectancy is about 54 years. The Guinness Book of World Records on Friday conferred the title of the world's oldest living person on a 117-year-old Pennsylvania woman who hates vegetables and advises against worrying about age.

(Reuter)