Mr Aon lives in the Chai Wan area of Udon Thani with his 70-year old wife whom he married in 1964 when she was 15 and he was 73 years old. It has been a happy marriage according to the pair who spoke with Thai reporters this week.
Thailand may be home to the oldest man living on earth who has lived through its history since before the end of slavery to the modern Thailand we see today. Aon Phanchumphu is a fit and sprightly 128-year-old man who lives happily Udon Thani with his wife whom he married in the 1960s and their family.
Thailand may well be home to the oldest person on earth. Most official records for the oldest men and women in the world right now quote ages of 117 to 120 years but one man in Thailand claims to be 128 years olds and is also more fit and active than most.
His age of 128 years would by far, make him the oldest person in the world but this requires international verification despite the old man’s official ID card.
In the past, there has been some doubt about age in many parts of Thailand as the reporting of death and births was not universally enforced in remoter areas until relatively recent times.
Born during the reign of King Chulalongkorn in 1891
According to his identity card issued by the Thai government and also supported by his impressive memory, Mr Aon Phanchumphu is over 128 years old having been born on the 9th of April 1891 during the reign of Thailand’s King Chulalongkorn and the reign of Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom. Mr Phanchumpho has lived as an adult through all of Thailand’s recent history.
Aon would have been a Thai teenager when slavery was officially abolished in the kingdom in 1905
Mr Aon would have been a teenager in 1905 when slavery was finally abolished the kingdom, the change having been ushered in 5 years earlier by a law which meant that all workers in Thailand must be paid. He would have lived through the 1932 bloodless revolution that saw Thailand became a constitutional monarchy and the later rule of Field Marshal Phibun that led to major upheavals, Thailand’s entry into World War II and its invasion and occupation by Japan. In 1946, King Bhumibol Adulyadej came to the throne and this led to the birth of modern Thailand as we know it today but it has always been an eventful and sometimes turbulent history with many coups and political struggles.
Couple married for 55 years have never rowed
Having lived through it all, today Mr Aon lives contentedly in the Chai Wan district of Udon Thani with his wife of 55 years whom he married in 1964 when he was already a ripe 73 years old. His wife was 15 when he married her and the couple have lived a contented and happy marriage since. They told reporters this week that they have never had a serious disagreement or row and have produced seven children, 11 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren so far.
128-year-old man is active and has robust mental abilities including great memory
Mr Aon was visited this week by reporters from Thailand’s popular Khao Sod publication. He recalled his long life with amazing mental alacrity and memory. He showed them that he is still capable of work around the family farm which is the basis for their livelihood including sweeping the front of the house clean with a broom and showing his impressed audience how he helps make the same implements for sale as a cottage industry. He also displayed his ability to climb stairs to the second floor of his home with ease.
Eats pickled fish, vegetables and nuts
He recalled how all his own generation have long died off and even most of the generation after that. He puts his good health and long life down to working hard and staying active as well as eating pickled fish, vegetables and chewing nuts. His only underlying health problem right now is a tendency for higher blood pressure.
Reporters could sense the happy and contented relationship the aged man had with his wife
From spending some time with the older man perhaps the oldest man in the world, reporters were struck by the happy and contented relationship that Mr Aon had with his now 70-year-old wife who is younger than he was when they first married. The pair dismissed the age difference between them as a problem. Their life together is already living proof that their marriage has been a success. As to the future, Mr Aon is quietly hoping that he may live to be 200 years old.
