Tibetan Mastiff
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About twenty or thirty years ago, the tibetan mastiff served only as a shepherd dog for Tibetan herders, but today it has a five, six or seven-figure Yuan worth.
Origin From the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
The Tibetan mastiff, just as its name implies, is a kind of dog originating on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and with Tibetan inhabited area as its main domain. It is an animal subject to Class II State protection.
Many Chinese and foreign scholars hold the view that the ancestors of Tibetan mastiff were in Tibet of China, and had countless relations with the Tibetan ethnic group living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A famous philosopher in ancient Greece thought that "huge, strong and ferocious Indian dogs are dogs from the Tibetan plateau, and they were transported from there to Persia and Asia." Some Chinese sophists agree with the idea that the Tibetan mastiff had its origins on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In 1240, when Genghis Khan led his Mongolian army to sweep through Europe, a corps of mastiffs was organized. When fighting ceased, about three thousand dogs were left in Europe. These pure Himalayan Tibetan mastiffs crossbred with local dogs and to create world famous breeds.
Name of Tibetan mastiff
A Tibetan mastiff
This writer once found some books about the Tibetan mastiff while browsing in bookstores recently. Among them, a picture album with the name China's Tibetan Mastiff has a Tibetan book name of "karung-gao-baod-kayi-khayi" (meaning China's Tibetan dog or dog of China's Tibet). At that time I had a feeling that this Tibetan name was not accurate, as Tibetan dog (or dog of the Tibetan), as its name implies, refers to all kinds of dogs originating from Tibetan-inhabited areas. But the dog introduced in this book is different from common Tibetan dogs. Hence, it is not correct to call the Tibetan mastiff as a Tibetan dog (or dog of the Tibetans). But it is strange that the Tibetan mastiff, closely related with daily life of Tibetans, does not have a unified name in Tibetan inhabited areas until today. Some call it "Dorqu" or "Zhoqoi", and others call it "Zhago", "Lhawo", "Biqoi", and these names obviously greatly differ from each other.
The names of "Dorqu" and "Zhoqoi" are very popular in some places such as U-Tsang, Hainan, Huangnan and Gannan, and they are written as "vdaogs-khayi" and "vbarog-khayi" respectively in Tibetan. The latter names are explained in the Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary. The former refers to "bound dog" and "watchdog" and the latter refers to "shepherd dog" and "mastiff fed by herders". Obviously the explanatory sources of the two names reflect the functions, roles and the living environment of dogs. If we followed these explanations, we would have "bound dogs", "watchdogs", "shepherd dogs" and "mastiff fed by herders" in all the Tibetan inhabited areas were the Tibetan mastiff and other breeds occur. But it is not true. The Tibetan mastiff is a very special breed and is not governed by whether it is bound, whether it occurs in herding areas, or whether it serves as a watchdog or for other purposes. So, these two names are suspected of covering all with the part and tending to result in different meanings.
A portrait of the God in the Potala Palace.
Apart from the aforementioned names, the Tibetan mastiff also has a name of "seed of lions". Just as its name implies, the Tibetan mastiff is a huge size and very powerful and strong like a lion. According to aesthetic interest in traditional Tibetan culture, the lion is king of the animals as it is brave, fierce, and dauntless and it is often viewed as a symbol of prestige and worship, implying some divine, inviolable or incomparable knowledge and wisdom, just as the holy seat of a Living Buddha is called "Lion Seat" and works of sages are called as "the roar of fearless lions", etc.
The Tibetan mastiff seems like a lion in many aspects in appearance, character, etc., such as large head, wide face, large tongue, fat lips, deep and fiery eyes, huge size, long and thick hair, broad chest, strong legs, fat neck, and especially its dense mane is just like the African lion. It is born with a kingly air of prestige, sturdiness, and fortitude. But it has double features especially in its character. It seems gentle and calm in surface appearance, but this masks characteristics as ferocity, atrocity and fearlessness, making people feel fearful.
The cultural meaning of viewing lions in terms of prestige and loftiness extends to Tibetan mastiff, which creates an aura of romance and incomparable fame in comparison with common dogs. However, the name of "seed of lions" also has a paucity of variable meanings in the Tibetan language. For example, "ha-ba", "ha-lau" and other dogs are also called as "saung-pharug" (meaning of small lions) and "saeng-gae" (meaning of lions) because of their long hair. But they are another kind of dogs, nothing like the Tibetan mastiff.
"Sarung-ma", also called as "naor-gsaung", is also a name of the Tibetan mastiff as well as "sgao-khayi", with the respective meaning of shepherd dogs and watchdogs. According to some relevant Tibetan literature, a chapter of "Subduing Dogs" in a well-known Tibetan heroic epic, Gesar: Daser Gives Alms, says that after Gesar won victory with his armies when attacking "saog-khayi-dgau-chang", he sent all his dogs to the many herders as "sarung-ma" (i.e. shepherd dogs). In Thousand Songs written by a famous Tibetan poet, the 6th Dalai Lama, there is a poem related to the Tibetan mastiff, saying "the mastiff with beard around the cheek is cleverer than the human; don't say I went out in dusk and returned back in the morning". The Tibetan mastiff referred in the poem became "sgao-khayi" (i.e. watchdog), and its loyalty, faithfulness and cleverness are vividly described. It can be said that the names of "sarung-ma" (naor-gsaung) and "sgao-khayi" reflect appropriately the role of the Tibetan mastiff as the most faithful partner of Tibetan herders in real life.
However, it should be explained that "sarung-ma" (naor-gsaung) and "sgao-khayi" also have various meanings. For example, not all shepherd dogs or watchdogs are Tibetan mastiffs, and other kinds of dogs can also fill these roles. In view of this meaning, these two names are not names particular used by the Tibetan mastiff but the joint name of all kinds of dogs which serve as shepherd dogs and watchdogs.
The Tibetan mastiff also has its own name. Usually masters call them according to their age, appearance and color. When naming a Tibetan mastiff, Tibetan cultural characteristics should be respected and they cannot be named at people's pleasure which have become very fashionable but lose the strongest cultural elements of the Tibetan mastiff.
In recent years, some people with unclear knowledge about the Tibetan mastiff thought it was good at running and could serve as a hunting dog, which is wrong. A hunting dog is completely different from a Tibetan mastiff, having short hair, good sense of smell, long legs, and strong resistance, and is very good at long-distance running and chasing. However the Tibetan mastiff is much inferior to hunting dogs in running and chasing after quarry.
A portrait of the Wealth God in the Potala Palace.
"Dog Festival"
The Tibetan ethnic group loves feeding dogs. The custom of "Dog Festival" has been popular in some Tibetan regions, and the specific time is the second day of Tibetan calendar. There is a saying that "the first day of Tibetan month is a festival of people and the second day is a festival of dogs".
In this "festival", with the rising of sun in the early morning, the master must prepare a piece of meat, zanba (roasted barley flour) and other favorite foods of the dogs, which is called "lao-skal" and has the main objective of thanking them for staying with their masters in the past year. That night is dogs' "khayi-yai-staon-mao". Masters will do something in relation to a specific situation, such as cleaning the dog's kennel to improve the living environment and changing the dog's cushions or red ribbon neck ring. If, in that evening, masters dress up intentionally, they will be viewed as participating in "dog celebration" activities. Of course, the "dog festival" mentioned here only reflects humanistic care of animals. We should explain that celebrating a festival for dogs might be very popular in early times in Tibetan inhabited areas, but now except for some areas of the Amdo regions, the custom is no longer celebrated or even remembered.
Anecdotes of Dogs
The Tibetan ethnic group regards cattle, sheep and horses as dependents, "naor", of herders. The dogs including Tibetan mastiff are faithful partners of the herders, but in their minds, their position and influence is far behind that of livestock, and they are always used to satirize, castigate and put down some flunkies, and are always related to guile, stealing, impudence, and lack of faith.
For example, old men are vituperated as old dogs; outrageous women as bitches, youth as puppies, thieves as thieving dogs, etc. In various popular proverbs in Tibetan regions satirizing and vituperating by means of dogs can be found everywhere.
In regard to color, Tibetan people think red dogs are "thief dogs" or "ghost dogs". In Tibetan proverbs it is said that "dogs belonging to red families can do nothing but steal." Many folk stories in Tibetan people relate red dogs with "ghosts", treating red dogs as an incarnation or unlucky aspect of "ghosts" with bad fame. Pure black dogs and colorful dogs are regarded as suitable to serve as "shepherd dogs" or "watchdogs" but not hunting dogs. But, of course these sayings are only folk legends and not necessarily true to real life.
Tibetan people think the longest life of dogs is nine years, and there is saying that "people live for a hundred years and dogs live for nine years". The lives of dogs are comparatively short, but now, with the improvement of people's daily life, the food for feeding dogs are very abundant and their life span has been extended. Particularly, those dogs who are well cared for by their masters usually live longer wild dogs.
Cultivation of Tibetan Mastiff
Tibetan mastiffs are bred in all Tibetan- inhabited areas. In the hinterland, there are about 20-odd Tibetan mastiff breeding bases, which is remarkable. It is reported that the world's largest Tibetan mastiff breeding base is now in Japan; Ma Junren, former State track and field team coach as well as "mastiff god" in China, also has many mastiffs. Another thing worth attention is that the living spaces of Tibetan mastiff are on plateau at an altitude above 3,000 meters, and they have much stronger ability in breeding and living than other animals due to the their ability to cope with a bad natural environment.
Last year, the China National Kennel Club (CNKC) of the China Animal Agriculture Association (CAAA) and Tibetan mastiff clubs held activities of "China Tibetan mastiff return" and sent back 20 pure and fine Tibetan mastiffs to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This kind of cultural returning activities show people that the only original source of the Tibetan mastiff--the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau--has the natural and humanistic and geographical conditions for breeding pure Tibetan mastiffs, preventing the increasing degeneration of the breed and promote the sound and stable development of a Tibetan mastiff industry in the hinterland.