Online video does not show a 399-year-old woman
Last updated on: 09 March,2022 01:35 pm
In February 2022, the oldest living person was 119-year-old Japanese woman Kane Tanaka.
(Reuters) - Social media users have been circulating a video claiming to be footage of a 399-year-old woman. The video, however, is miscaptioned and shows footage of a man who appears to be Luang Pho Yai, a 109-year-old from Thailand.
The Guinness Book of World Records (here) reports that the fully authenticated oldest person who ever lived was French woman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in August 1997 aged 122 years and 164 days.
In February 2022, the oldest living person was 119-year-old Japanese woman Kane Tanaka.
Videos of Luang Pho Yai, some of which also make unfounded claims that he is a monk much older than his 109 years (some claiming him to be 163 years old), circulated online in February 2022. The narrative around his identity has now shifted to identifying him as a 399-year-old woman.
Luang Pho Yai is male and his life in the past year has been documented on a Tik Tok page operated by a woman who says she is Yai’s granddaughter, which say that Yai is 109 years old.
There was no immediate response to a Reuters request for comment from an account belonging to @Auyary13, and Reuters was unable to find definitive proof of the video subject’s name and age.
Fact-checking website Snopes also published a report on the footage, also finding that it was of a man who appears to be Luang Pho Yai, aged 109, not 163.
VERDICT
Miscaptioned. The video footage shows a man who appears to be 109-year-old Luang Pho Yai of Thailand.