This classic photograph depicts Mongolian giant Öndör Gongor, who lived approximately from 1880 to 1925, though not too much is certain about his life. For instance, he either worked as an accountant, an elephant keeper, a bodyguard or a wrestler. The sketchy biographical details are collected at The Tallest Man website. An excerpt:

“According to an interview with his daughter G. Budkhand, published in 1997, Ondor Gongor was the third child of a herder named Pürev, who lived in the Dalai Choinkhor wangiin khoshuu, or what is today Jargalant sum of Khövsgöl aimag. He was not particularly big as child, only had long fingers. Because of him always eating a lot, he became a bit unpopular with his parents, and eventually was sent to Ikh Khüree. One day, he was summoned to the Bogd Khan, given fresh clothes, and after a while he was even made to marry a woman who worked as one of the Bogd Khan’s seamstresses, on the grounds that according to a horoscope by the Bogd Khan, their fates were connected.

The accounts are a bit at odds about what Gongor’s occupation at the Bogd Khan’s court was: accountant and keeper of the Bogd Khan’s elephant, the Bogd Khan’s bodyguard, or wrestler. In 1913, he travelled to Russia with a delegation headed by Sain Noyon Khan Namnansüren. Later, he is said to have worked at the toll office.

Ondor Gongor had four children. He died in his home area in the late 1920s, before reaching the age of 50. His corpse is said to have been stolen during the funeral – at that time, the deceased were laid out in the steppe to be devoured by birds and other animals – and now on display in a US museum.”