- TUK YOUNG (Reuters)
- In a creaking bamboo hut deep in the Cambodian countryside a very, very
old person -- possibly the world's oldest -- smokes a large, hand-rolled
cigarette which he swears is the secret of his longevity.
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- But unfortunately for Sek Yi, whose relatives say he
is 122, he will never be able to win a world record for his tiny corner
of southeast Asia because all his documents were destroyed by Pol Pot's
ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
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- "We wish him well, but, sadly, we have to have strict
verification for all our records," said a spokeswoman for Guinness
World Records in London.
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- Having survived the horrors of the "Killing Fields,"
in which an estimated 1.7 million were executed or died of torture, disease
or starvation, Sek Yi and his equally wizened wife, Long Ouk, 108, can
only muse on the causes of their extreme longevity -- a mixture of tobacco
and prayer.
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- "When I was young I used to chew betel, but people
made fun of me saying I was like a woman, so I took up smoking," Sek
Yi told Reuters in a barely audible croak.
-
- "To live a long time, young people should go to
the pagoda often and lead a pure life," his wife said. "Every
time I pray I ask the Lord Buddha to look after my children and help them
live long."
-
- The couple now have just one final wish -- to visit the
famed 800-year-old Angkor Wat temples, Cambodia's national treasure.
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- "They had planned to go to Angkor several times,
but something always happened, like war or fighting, which prevented them
going," said 13th daughter Siek Yiet, 62.
-
- According to Guinness World Records, the world's oldest
living person is Kamato Hongo, a 116-year-old Japanese woman. Guinness
says the greatest fully authenticated age to which any human has lived
is the 122 years and 164 days of Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in
1997.
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