Although he may look younger, Dor Bahadur Khapangi is actually 17 years old.
At a height of 73.43 cm (2 ft 4.9 in), Dor Bahadur is the world’s shortest teenager living (male).
He lives in the Sindhuli district of Nepal with his parents and siblings, who are all average heights.
Dor Bahadur was born on 14 November 2004 and “seemed to be like any other child,” according to his older brother Nara Bahadur.
However, after his seventh birthday, Dor Bahadur stopped growing. 😲
“At the age of 12 or 13, we knew that he would not grow,” Nara Bahadur says.
Did you know?
The tallest teenager living (male) is 16-year-old Olivier Roux (Canada). At a height of 226.9 cm (7 ft 5.3 in), he is over three times taller than Dor Bahadur!
To find out the cause of Dor Bahadur’s small size, his family decided to pay for medical tests and treatments. 👩⚕️
The tests still haven’t revealed why he stopped growing, but according to Nara Bahadur, nothing seems out of the ordinary in his health.
Did you know?
The shortest male ever was also from Nepal. Chandra Bahadur Dangi (1939-2015) measured 54.6 cm (21.5 in).
As you can imagine, being the world’s shortest teenager can be challenging.
Dor Bahadur can’t lift heavy objects and he can’t walk for long. His mother carries him to school every morning and he is helped home by a niece in the afternoon.
His family also dress him and help him eat his meals. 👕🍝
"We have to take care of everything, including feeding him." - Nara Bahadur
After school, Dor Bahadur takes a nap and eats dinner. 😋
Dor Bahadur doesn’t need his family’s help for everything though.
He loves spending time outdoors and is able to do small tasks such as feeding the chickens. 🐔
He also likes to play with a ball that his family gave him. Whether he plays alone or with the village children, Dor Bahadur always has lots of fun. ️😄
"If there are other children around, he plays with them. Otherwise, he starts doing his homework." – Nara Bahadur
Normally, the children he plays with are around seven or eight years old. 👦
He also has some older friends from the village, but they moved away to work or study.
At the moment, Dor Bahadur hasn't had the chance to leave the village and work on his future.
However, his family hope that after achieving this Guinness World Records title, Dor Bahadur can continue his education and travel to new places. 😀
How many of the world's shortest people do you recognize in this quiz?
