Phidim man with 11.5 feet Tuppi

By Our Correspondent,Phidim, Apr. 12: What is the longest ponytail (Tuppi) you can imagine? A few feet? Three, four or five perhaps? Well, 83-year-old Yam Narayan Bhandari's pigtail is 11 and a half feet long.

Sounds surprising, but it is true. It is not an easy thing to maintain. Bhandari, who lives in Phidim Municipality–2, has a hard thing handling his pigtail.  When bathing, he needs a separate bucket to keep his Tuppi in and has to get a helper to wash it. It is a hassle, he said. But he does not keep it by choice.

"Forty-six years ago, I had a dream," he said, stressing, "It was a morning dream where I saw a sage dressed in a yellow robe. The sage came up to me and told me to never cut or comb my pigtail. And I have not disobeyed him."

Because of his long Tuppi, he has earned the nickname Tuppi Ba, Tuppi Granpa or Tuppi Man. People, young and old alike, gather around him to see him.

However, if not for an accident 21 years ago, the Tuppi would have been longer. Bhandari shared, "I was collecting grass one day when I had to climb a tree. When doing so, my hair got entangled on a branch and the pigtail snapped. I lost around five and a half feet of hair that day."

Bhandari believes that he has the longest pigtail of any man in the world and wants to get himself registered in the Guinness Book of World Records. "But I have no idea how to do that," he said.