An Indonesian man claiming to be 145 years old says he just wants to die.

Mbah Gotho's ID card, issued in 2014, says he was born on December 31, 1870.

If genuine - and this hasn't been independently verified - he would be a whopping 23 years older than the existing record holder, Jeanne Clement of France, who died in 1997 aged 122.

Mr Gotho told local media the recipe for a long life is "patience".

"What I want is to die. My grandchildren are all independent."

One of his grandsons says they've been waiting to bury him since 1992, when they made his gravestone.

Mr Gotho can't see very well anymore, so spends most of his time listening to the radio. He has to be spoon-fed and bathed, as he's too frail to do much else.

If his claim is legitimate, it would mean Mr Gotho was born the same year as Vladimir Lenin, leader of the 1917 Russian revolution.

It makes him older than Ernest Rutherford, the first man to split the atom, French author Marcel Proust and even Ms Clement.

Newshub.