Tallest Lao man shot to fame after clinic visit

Phoudoi, whose name means mountain, was born into a farming family in 1990 in Namsay-theung village, Pathoumphone district, Champassak province. He was measured at 2.25 metres in June this year.

 

It is believed that he holds the record for the tallest man in Laos, despite there being no official record. People only came to know about him through social media and as far as anyone knows, no one in the country is taller.

 

The family’s village is about 30km from the centre of Pakxe district in Champassak province and is a quiet, rural community.      

 

Phoudoi’s mother, Heuang Xayachak, told Vientiane Times that Phoudoi is the third of her seven children. He became taller than anyone else in the family and the village when he turned 13. The other tallest person in the family is only 1.60 metres.

 

“He left school at 13 when he was in Year 3 of lower secondary school because he was shy about his height as he was taller than all of his friends. Since then he has continued to grow and I think he may become even taller.”

 

“Despite being 2.25 metres tall and weighing just over 100kg, he is still healthy. Every day he helps his parents with farming just like the rest of the family,” Heuang said.

 

When asked if she had ever thought about taking her son to see a doctor at the provincial hospital or a hospital in Vientiane to find out the reason for his exceptional height, Heuang said they had never done so because her family couldn’t afford it. But everyone in the family is happy because Phoudoi is healthy.

 

“On Wednesday, I took him to see a doctor at a clinic in Pakxe because he got a cold after working hard in the rice fields. I was very surprised when so many people suddenly showed interest in him, including the doctors at the clinic. Many of them posed for photos with my son which they later posted on Facebook so now a lot of people know about him. It was the first time I had ever taken him to the provincial capital,” she said.                    

 

The tallest man in Asia is Xi Shun, a herdsman from Inner Mongolia, China, who was born in 1951. He was recognised by Guinness World Records in 2005 when he measured 2.36 metres, while Sultan Kösen who was born in 1982 in Ankara, Turkey, was measured by Guinness World Records at 2.51 metres in 2011.

 

According to the Guinness World Records website, the tallest man in the medical history of the world was Robert Pershing Wadlow from the United States, who measured 2.72 metres in 1940.