I was just watching a tv show, 'dogs in the city'. I don't know if you've heard of it before or seen it. But, we have two dogs and a cat that we got here in China. The dogs both 5 years old and the cats 3 years. Well, 'dogs in the city' has inspire this blog topic about the Tibetan mastiff!
The large black breed with the two light brown circles above their eye can occasionally be seen around China, especially at dog markets. I was told in one of the pet stores that they have the light brown circles above their eyes to trick or scare any predators.
Tibetan Mastiff's are known as the temple dogs in China, Nepal and Tibet. This is because they used to guard the temple at night while the monks were sleeping. They are the perfect dog for the job. They are large dogs and can be intimidating. They are and quite and never bark too much, which is suiting at a temple and they are 'home' dogs, they don't like to roam or wander around too much. To me it seems that have a similar personality as the monks in the temple.
Almost all temples now through China, Nepal and Tibet do not have Tibetan Mastiff's as guard dogs. But, if you look on the roofs of the temples you will see the statues of the lion dog on every temple. This way, along with the other dragons, they are still watching over the temple.
Here a photo I took at a temple in Chengdu. This is the lion/dog/dragon watching over the temple and keeping everyone safe.
We have two dogs that we bought here in China. We got them in Guangzhou and now they fly everywhere with us- Nanjing, Guiyang, Shanghai, they love it and our cat does too!
But, both our dogs are mix breeds and one of them has a little bit of Tibetan Mastiff.
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