Known as Sodimejo, or Mbah Gotho, this man had an Indonesian ID card which alleged his birthday was December 31, 1870.
If this is really true, then Mbah Gotho would have already been thirty years old at the beginning of the 20th-century, forty-two years old when the Titanic sank, or seventy-five years old when WWII ended. A small concern, if that is his exact birthday, is that Indonesia did not keep civil registration records until 1900, so we cannot be a hundred percent certain of the accuracy of Mbah Gotho’s age.
“Mbah Gotho, the worlds oldest human dies at age 146”: https://t.co/WRyfvFC5Kv born in 1870 pic.twitter.com/7p8D9KLHUf
— samim (@samim) May 2, 2017
Nevertheless, Indonesian authorities have affirmed that Mbah Gotho’s papers were valid. Deemed to be the oldest human in the world, he died aged 146 on 30 April 2017, in his village situated in the Central Java Region. Reportedly, the funeral took place on Monday, 1st of May, 2017.
His death came following complications with his health that developed earlier in the month of April. Gotho told The Jakarta Post last year that: “Life is only a matter of accepting your destiny wholeheartedly. I have wanted to die for a long time. My wives, children, and siblings all have passed away but Gusti Allah [God] has blessed me with a long life. I have to live my life patiently and accept my destiny wholeheartedly.”
Sodimejo aka Mbah Gotho finally passed away on 146 years old https://t.co/DAV00bZ6tS pic.twitter.com/4pg2VvOgYL
— News24XX (@News24Xx) May 1, 2017
According to his grandson Suryanto, Gotho did not have any particular type of food he was not allowed to consume. Also, he had never suffered from any serious disease and had started using a walking stick only two years ago. The elder was hospitalized on April 12, but he had insisted on being returned home less than a week later. The grandson had told the BBC that at that point “he only ate spoonfuls of porridge and drank very little“. He further adds: “It only lasted a couple of days. From that moment on to his death, he refused to eat and drink.“
Throughout his lifetime, Mbah Gotho had mostly worked as a farmer and fisherman. A heavy smoker, he was also well known in his local community. “He was a local hero and would recount stories of life under Japanese and Dutch colonizers,” further reports The Guardian.
Mbah Gotho has been survived by five children, twelve grandchildren, seventeen great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. He had also outlived all four of his wives.
Despite local Indonesian officials having confirmed his date of birth to be true, there is still an absence of a third-party verification to claim the accuracy of his age. Despite Gotho’s fascinating human achievement of living 146 years on Earth, he cannot be designated as the oldest living human in recorded history. According to The Guinness World Record, the title remains attributed to Jeanne Louise Calment from France. She lived 122 years and 164 days and died on 4 August 1997.
Oldest person in the world: Violet Brown…117 years old…congratulations! pic.twitter.com/RYl1Ij7IyE
— Steve Hasting (@durandurantulsa) May 9, 2017
At current, the world’s oldest person alive on the planet is Violet Brown from Jamaica. Being 117 years old, she has become officially the oldest person in the world in April, following the death of Emma Morano from Italy, who died, also at 117, on Saturday 15 April 2017.
Read another story from us: Emma Morano: World’s oldest person aged 117, died on Saturday
What’s an even more fascinating fact, is that these ‘superhumans’ have literally been the last surviving individuals born in the 1800s.