BBC News Photo
The most popular story on the BBC’s web site today reports on the discovery, in Kazakhstan, of a woman who is apparently 130 years old. The revelation of Sohan Dosova’s age came through a new census, and is based on documents issued when Kazakhstan was a Soviet Republic. In other words, she has the weight of a huge Communist bureaucracy behind her claim to being the world’s oldest person.
“Do you remember Tsar Nikolai’s era? When the Red Army came and when Vladimir Lenin died? Well I do. So take a guess how old I am.”
Meet Sohan Dosova–the newly found treasure of Kazakhstan. She is 130 years old, at least she is according to her documents.
The Soviet passport issued in the early 1980s states that Sohan Dosova was born in the Karaganda region on 27 March 1879.
Dosova, who is apparently in good health, has lived in the same small coal mining village for her entire life. She says she likes to watch television and drink her tea with butter in it, and thinks her apartment is too small–especially now that reporters are thronging to visit her. She has had to give up dancing, a favorite pastime, but still enjoys singing Kazakh songs, as she demonstrated for the BBC: Listen here.
