Tibetan Mastiff history and myths | Origins of the Tibetan Mastiff

Coming from the dawn of time this mythical dog, Lord of Himalaya has always showed exceptional qualities.
It seems that Tibetan Mastiffs have spread through the West with the asian invasions in the Middle Ages especially thanks to the greeks, romans and phoenicians.
At the end of the 13th century Marco Polo widely contributed to establish the myth of the gigantic and harsh Tibetan Mastiff. About these animals he notably wrote: “these mastiffs are as tall as donkeys...they are so cruel and fearless animals...”
The Tibetan Mastiff is usually considered as the ancestor of all watchdogs in Asia and Europe,but it is really hard to believe in a common origin for all these tall breeds!
Scientifics think varied sorts of Tibetan Mastiffs still exist nowadays such as the lionhead mastiff, the lion-mastiff, the bearhead mastiff and the foxhead mastiff, dogs with different types and stature.
In fact, the whole group of these Tibetan dogs is made of very different individuals from a region to the other because of the geographic situation of Tibet which is a land of isolated and remote valleys. It is much more correct to talk about Tibetan Mastiffs in general.
For the tibetan, these dogs are used to gard houses or yurts and monasteries. But even if they fiercely protect flocks at night, they also gather livestock during the day. They may as well defend, look after what they are entrusted and protect villages against strangers as fight against wolves,bears and snow leopards.
Therefore among all those morphological types, the occidental try to “fix” the breed through the selection of individuals issued from Nepal or north India, rare lands open to foreigners.
That breed started to interest the American breeders during the 70ties then the swiss, dutch and german breeders got interested too.
The first Tibetan Mastiff introduced in England in 1830 did not survive .The first three subjects introduced in France by the famous french actor Alain Delon could never reproduce.
The current french breeding has its origin in dutch individuals imported in 1980 and in swiss individuals either.
That breed still keeps a kind of secret aura even if nowadays, its legendary fierce reputation has kind of vanished.