Bucking the trend of posting herding dogs every Friday, Jess from Desert Wind Hounds forwarded these “spitzy-looking dogs” from Darjeeling District of India to me, more specifically Sikkim and in the between the Tanglu and Sandah peaks, smacked dabbed in-between the countries of Bhutan and Nepal.
Sidenote: Honestly, livestock guardian dogs are not my forté. There is very little interest in them in this household. Unfortunately, I know more about the British colonial history than I know about dogs. However I do have a sister who has a hard on for these type of dogs, so I will give it a shot.
It’s interesting because the Darjeeling used to be part of Kingdom of Sikkim and acted as a buffer-state between Nepal and Bhutan by the East India Company and the Qing Dynasty, then later between the British Raj and the Chinese Empire. Military history nerdiness asides, traditionally the Himalayas, the Tibetan and with Mongolian plateaus are associated mastiff-like dogs serving as livestock guardians or the cute companion dogs.
Except these dogs are not anything like the Tibetan Mastiff, the Bankhor or the Kyi Apso:
via gerty.ncl.ac.uk [Image: Gertrude Bell, Sikkim, 1903]
The above dogs remind me of the street dogs of Kathmandu. In fact there are street dogs in Sikkim, which still resembles the dogs of early 1900s.
via gerty.ncl.ac.uk [Image: Gertrude Bell, Tanglu-Sandah range, 1903]
Ironically enough, despite their build, these dogs are related to the nomadic mastiff landrace. Initally, it was confusing to identify them, but when several sources mentioned Himalayan Sheepdogs have a build of a long-haired Labrador Retriever, this dog fits the description quite aptly.
Take this guy for example:
via dogspot.in [Image: Vishtaspa Irani]
Looks similar to the Nepalese dog of 1903, no? Oh, the tail? Actually, Himalayan Sheep Dogs are quite variable in themselves. Some resembles lanky border collies and others resemble a Newfoundland. Feel use to use the Google for more examples, but take all of this with a grain of salt. Mystery solved, or as MythBusters put it: “plausible.”
Follow Us!