Tibetan terriers in Tibet

Through the years many people thought that there are no tibetan breeds in Tibet any more. Many of them went toTibet and the Himalaya but they haven't seen any.And if they saw some,it was usually just a few dogs who could maybe a sort of look a like tibetan terriers.Because of all that they thought that Tibetan terriers didn't exist anymore in Tibet.

Luckely, it was far away from the truth.....

Our little Slovenian-Croatian team (Jana & Primoz Peer and me, Ljiljana) went into a big adventure to search the original tibetan breeds in Tibet in April/May 2007. We were in Tibet for two weeks,try to make as many photos with original tibetan breeds as possible, especially from tibetan terriers.

For me it was a great opportunity,not only to see Tibet,but to be there with Primoz Peer. It was something like a two weeks seminar about Tibet and its tibetan breeds.

Our destination was the Eastern of Tibet, because unfortunately that is the only part of Tibet where it is possible to find beautifull examples of the original tibetan breeds.

Tibet definitely isn't a place for everyone. Some people who think that Tibet is like an exotic and mistic land full of temples, hills covered with prayer flags and have monks walk around in coloured dresses what we could all see in the movie ''7 years on Tibet'' could be very disappointed. Life in Tibet is very, very hard and for me it was a kind of culture shock.

Temperatures were between minus 5 celsius to plus 30 celcius in a short moment it was snowing and that cold,and a few moments later it was sunny and much warmer, so we often had to change our clothes from winter jacket to only t-shirts.This weather was changing untill we came into the part of the north of Tibet,in Kanze,were it was a really winter. I must admit that I was very happy with the snow there.The winter in Croatia from 2006/2007 was completely without ny snow,and i am a person what is a real "snow lover", so for me Tibet under a load snow was perfect for me.

For me it was the most exciting part where we have been,beautiful landscapes what I normally only saw in documentary films at TV. There were also wild animals around us,woolves were around us about a hundered meters,running and playing on the snow, rare tibetan foxes, and griffon vultures in the middle of the lawn eating dead yaks.

Our mission "to make photos" would not be impossible without our chinese guide Jack,who is also very impressed with the country Tibet.He also is a dog person. During the time we were in Tibet he told us he is a Bobtail (Old English Sheepdog) breeder,but now he also became to have ineterst in the Tibetan Terrier,and also wants to be a tibetan terrier breeder,and wants to starts with the original tibetan terriers he brought directly from Tibet. Jack knew where we had to search,so we were able to see beautiful tibetan dogs. I was not impressed with the huge cities from Tibet, but the small villages who aren't such a touristic target were really a discovery for us. There we could see and experienced the hard tibetan life. We also had a great driver who stopped when we saw some interesting dogs on the street. Jack was a person who did knock on peoples doors,asking them to show us their dogs if they did have some.He also showed the people photos and asked if they have seen similar dogs like he had on the photos.

The Tibetan people were very friendly, they accepted us,and they proudly showed us their dogs so we could take photos.

They dont have a real name for the dogs they breed, because they don't separate dogs through the breed, but through the type .If a dog is small or big and for what they can use them, so practical use in on the first place.

So, thats why the tibetan people dont recognize a tibetan terriers like we do recognize the tibetan terriers. For them the tibetan terrier is a Ha-ba, a little dog with a long coat. That was also the name for lhasa Apso, so we were interested in all the Ha-ba looking dogs.

Will be continued