Einer schottischen Ärztin, die zu Beginn
des letzten Jahrhunderts Dienst in der damaligen britischen Kronkolonie
Indien in einem Hospital geleistet hat, haben wir die Einführung des
Tibet Terriers in die westliche Welt zu verdanken.
1922 traf Frau Dr. Greig das erste Mal auf einen Tibet Terrier, als ein
tibetischer Händler mit seiner kranken Frau in dem Hospital in Kanpur (Cawnpore),
wo sie zu der Zeit arbeitete, um ihre Hilfe bat.
Ihre ersten Erfahrungen mit diesen Hunden und die Entscheidung, diese
Rasse zu züchten, hat Frau Dr. Greig viele Jahre später in einem Brief
beschrieben. Ich möchte ihn hier auszugsweise zitieren, um sie mit ihren
eigenen Worten ihre ersten Erlebnisse mit den Hunden erzählen zu lassen.
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18.03.1956
Now I'll tell you how I came to get the genuine Tibetan
Terrier. Tibetan Terriers are the original "Holy" dogs of the
Tibetan's rare breed (or were before the chinese invaded recently in
monasteries in and around Lhasa). I introduced the Tibetan Terrier into
India and got it recognized as a true pure breed and then sent them to
England to my mother and sister who started them here. I now own the
biggest kennel of pure Tibetans in the world as far as I know.
I joined the Women's Medical Service, a branch of the Indian Medical
Service and went to India. I was posted to Cawnpore in charge of the
Dufferin Hospital for Women and Children. ... One day I was astounded to
find a Tibetan and his wife and all their worldly possessions, including
his Tibetan Terriers, camped in the Hospital grounds. The Tibetan had
brought (an) Indian ... to act as interpreter. He told me the Tibetan had
brought his wife to me because she had a devil inside that was killing
her, the same as his (the Indian's) wife had had. As I had taken the devil
from his wife, he had told the Tibetan to bring his wife to me so that I
could take the devil away from her and make her all right, too. So, the
Tibetans came into a paying family ward, which was really like a small
four-roomed cottage - one room for the patient and the rest of the cottage
for the family so that they could all be together.
The snag was the Tibetan Terrier bitch (Lilly they called her) for Lilly
would not be separated from the wife and I could not have Lilly on her bed
after the operation. The wife said that Lilly would not stay with her
husband, so I said Lilly could stay in my house and I would bring her to
see them every day some time or other.
The wife said if Lilly will go with you that will be best, but she
won't go to a stranger. I just picked Lilly off the foot of the bed and
said: 'Come on, Lilly, come walk with me, there's a good girl', and she
turned her head around and licked my hand. The Tibetans were astonished.
About a fortnight after the operation, Lilly had a family of four pups,
and when they were about nine weeks old, the Tibetans decided that the
wife was strong enough to travel slowly. They brought the four pups to me
to choose one - a gift to show their gratitude for the recovery of the
wife.
They told me that Tibetan Terriers were the original Holy dog of Tibet and
were considered 'luck bringers'. That they were bred in the monasteries in
Upper and Western Tibet and not in those in and around Lhasa where
foreigners were permitted to go. In Lhasa, they bred a dog in the
monasteries which was not the real Holy dog so that they could give a
"monastery" dog to a foreigner who wanted one and still not
give away their real Holy dog.
And Tibetan lucky enough to be given a genuine Tibetan Terrier by one of
the Lamas treated it exactly as one of the children and was considered not
an animal but a human soul in another form.
Tibetan Terriers have been bred in those monasteries for more than 2.000
years. My puppy I called "Bunty". Bunty was so adorable and so
different to any other dog I had ever had that when the Tibetan came to
Cawnpore two years later to show me that his wife was still all right and
that the devil had not returned, I asked him to find a husband for Bunty,
and that was how I started.
What decided me to carry on and breed Tibetan Terriers after I left India
was the following incident. My Hospital, and so of course my house, was on
the edge of the native part of Cawnpore. While I was there, there were
anti-British riots. The day before those riots started a Fakir (Indian
Holy Man) came into my garden and sat himself down under a banyan tree.
When I was passing, he said, "Salaam Miss Sahib, I have come."
I said, "So I see, but who sent you?"
He said, "The Wise Ones."
I asked, "Who are the Wise Ones?"
He replied, "Those who live in the very far off high mountains."
That could only mean they lived somewhere in Tibet. Well! All the time the
riots were on, he sat there and no Indian came near us to harm us. I was
the only European who could leave their house to go out unarmed. Several
Europeans were badly hurt and one or two killed during theses six weeks.
Then one evening the Fakir stood up and said to me, "My work here is
now done, I go." Bunty and her husband and children were playing on
the verandah. The Fakir looked at them and said "Miss Sahib, take
great care of your people from the monasteries and they will take care of
you."
Next morning he was gone, and word came that the riots were over. I'm
quite sure we in Hospital owed our lives to the fact that I had Tibetan
Terriers, for I think the Fakir was sent to protect the Tibetan Terriers
from a rioting crowd of Indians and so we came in for protection too. The
Tibetan, when he gave me Bunty, said, "As long as you have Bunty or
her descendants, you will find someone or something to help you should you
need it, " and I have.
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