Sahan Dosova

Sahan Dosova, or Sakhan Dosova (Kazakh: Сaxaн Дocoвa; 27 March 1879 – 9 May 2009) was a Kazakhstani woman reputed by some to have been the oldest woman who ever lived.^[1][2]

Longevity claim

If her claimed date of birth (27 March 1879) is correct, Sahan would have been 7009410620320000000♠130 years, 43 days old at the time of her death on 9 May 2009. This is eight years longer than Jeanne Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 with the longest confirmed lifespan in history, aged 122 years, 164 days.

Doubts

Dosova's case was first uncovered during a census in Kazakhstan. However, there are doubts about the claims made on her behalf because she did not have a birth certificate and it was common for people at the time to make up their own date of birth.^[1]

Another point of contention is that at the time of her alleged 130th birthday her only living daughter was 76 years old, meaning that Dosova would have been 54 years old when she gave birth.^[1]

Death

Dosova died on 9 May 2009, allegedly aged 130 years, about a month after she slipped and fell on the bathroom floor of a flat gifted to her on account of her old age. "She broke her hip in the fall and never recovered," one of Sahan's neighbors said.

Personal life

In an interview in March 2009, Sahan had said: "I don't have any special secret. I've never taken pills and if I was ill, I used granny's remedies to cure me. I have never eaten sweets. I don't like them." She confessed that she loved kurt, a local delicacy made from salted dried cottage cheese and ground wheat.

According to her eldest granddaughter, Dosova grew up as an orphan during her infant and childhood years. The twice married Dosova was widowed at the Battle of Stalingrad during the Second World War. Only three of her children remain alive as of 2011.

See also

• Longevity claims
• Longevity traditions
• Supercentenarian

References