Fact Check: Claim of 209-year-old Tibetan monk being discovered in the mountains of Nepal debunked

A Twitter user, who goes by the username @BhattiSaaaaab shared a photo of an elderly man and claimed that the individual is a 209-year-old Tibetan monk from Nepal. However, the same was soon debunked as a photo of a 109-year-old man from Thailand. The original tweet read:

"A Tibetan monk has been discovered in a remote mountain cave in Nepal. It is sending shockwaves around the world. He is believed to be the oldest person in the world at 209 YEARS OLD! He was found in a state of deep meditation called "takatet." At first he appeared to be a mumy."

The tweet gained more than 6,000 likes and nearly 2,000 retweets as other social media users began commenting and sharing their take on the post.

The person who tweeted the photo of the alleged monk also admitted that the tweet was a false claim as users started debunking it.

In a Twitter thread, they commented that the alleged monk has a journal with "nuggets of wisdom." They also added:

"One of the most recent entries was, 'don't believe everything you read on Twitter.'"

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Who is the 109-year-old man being rumored as a Tibetan monk in the photos?

This is not the first time that the 109-year-old man has been linked to rumors on Twitter. Previously, hoax images of the man were posted online where social media users claimed that he was the oldest man alive and his age was mentioned as 163 years.

In another report from the publication Marca, the man was claimed to be 399 years old. But all these rumors were soon debunked.

Some of the elderly man's videos have gone viral from TikTok user @auyary13's account. The videos, which have millions of views, show the man sitting in a wheelchair, lying in bed, or being cared for.

The account owner also posts these videos from an Instagram profile named @auyary_sry. When asked about the man, they responded in March, noting:

"According to his [the elderly man] stories he said he was 109 years old."

The account owner also mentioned that his name is Luang Pho Yai. In one of their TikToks from January 2022, the account mentioned that they were planning to admit the man to Dan Khun Thot hospital in Western Thailand.

The account still posts videos of the elderly man, but quite rarely. Most of the pictures and videos of the rumored monk show him surrounded by well-wishers who come to meet him.

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Videos posted by the account owner have also turned into memes on social media as netizens often see pictures and videos of the individual circulating online with regard to rumors related to the oldest person alive. Several individuals on social media seem to claim a different age for the man.

A clip went viral on TikTok once claiming that the now rumored monk is a 399-year-old woman and the oldest human alive.

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While all of this is untrue, the Guinness Book of World Records noted that the oldest person to have ever lived died at the age of 122 in 1997. Kane Tanaka, who was the oldest person still alive till April, died at the age of 119 in Japan.