Mbah Gotho claims to be the oldest living person in the world and hails from Indonesia. Although there has been no third party verification of his claims, the Indonesian government does recognize him to have been born in the year 1870. Mbah recently died in the month of April after his health deteriorated and he became increasingly frail, he attributes his longevity to 'patience'.
An interview revealed that Mbah Gotho has outlived all of his 10 siblings, his children and all four wives. Mbah's last wife died in the year 1980. His goal now is to die because his grandchildren have become independent.
At the time of this article's writing, Mbah's official age has only been recognized by the Indonesian government but Guinness still hasn't recognized his longevity. This is because of lack of verification from reliable third party sources.
As with everything else which is fake on the internet, people are trying to spice up the old man's tale by claiming that he made a 'pact with satan' to live for an eternity. According to official records, Mbah was Christian.
According to rumors, Mbah had to sacrifice several children to the devil. That is the only way the devil would allow him to live an 'eternal life'. Of course none of these tales are true, and Mbah has died. Or has he?
These internet rumors are probably not above deifying Mbah's longevity and they're probably cooking some new disturbing rumor as we speak. What if he's not dead? What if he's in hiding? But take it from us, the old man has indeed died.
According to videos circulating on the internet, the old man could barely walk and needed help. He also had poor eyesight and could not watch TV. So he would listen to the radio, an activity which provided him the much needed entertainment in his life.
Of course his long life came with a cost. He had to witness the death of all his wives, both parents (of course) and even his children. This took its toll on him and he suffered from depression.
He called it 'euthanasia'. But euthanasia is illegal in Indonesia so no medical doctor honored his last wishes. The old man had to live the rest of his natural life in depression. At one point he just gave up and started chronic smoking.
Because of the old man's frail appearance, his family members anticipated that he would tip over and die any minute now. So they set up the gravestone in 1992 and timed their watched. "He could drop dead any minute now..."
Mbah defied their expectations and had almost three more decades left in him. The gravestone remained empty for a long, long time. He claims the secret to his longevity is patience. Even the chronic smoking couldn't kill him.
The old man has seen everything unfold in front of his very eyes, whether it is the First World War, Second World War, Cuban War or whatever rag tag name you could come up with. He is bound to have seen it all.
Of course the human body can only live for so long before succumbing to old age. And Mbah was no exception to this. His last three months on earth were marred by crippling illnesses and he had to be spoon fed.
Although he was immediately hospitalized after falling ill, the great-great grandfather realized his time was finally near and insisted to spend it with his family. His grandson Suyanto reported how weak Mbah really was after returning from the hospital.
Really isn't Mbah because no real independent efforts have ever been made to verify his age. As it stands, the title of the oldest living person goes to 122 year old Jeanne Calment, who died in the year 1997.
While Mbah is claimed to have lived for 146 years, there are others without verifiable records who are much older than him. For instance the 171 year old James Olofintuyi from Nigeria and 163 year old Dhaqabo Eba from Ethiopia.
