RFI: dog on an expedition

Dilliwala

Hey Raghu, I've also heard the Bhotia called Himalayan Sheep Dog. India Post in fact brought out a 'dog series' of stamps 2 years ago using the above name (also included Rampur Hound and one more species I can't recall). Is the a.m. the same dog as Tibetan mastiff, or a separate sub-species?

nyraghu

Dilliwala, my knowledge of Bhotiya dogs is limited to seeing them in Garhwal. I too had heard of the Himalayan sheepdog, and assumed that it was a synonym for the Bhotiya. However, it appears from http://www.sarastmdokhyi.org/breed.shtml that the Himalayan sheepdog and the Bhotiya dog are distinct sub-breeds of the Tibetan mastiff, the former common in Himachal Pradesh, and the latter in Garhwal. The document further says that the Himalayan sheepdog is also called the Gaddi dog, and refers to the Bhotiya itself as the Tibetan mastiff. So, in the Indian context, Gaddi and Bhotiya are perhaps more appropriate terms than Himalayan sheepdog and Tibetan mastiff, respectively.

The picture of the Gaddi dog at the above site does look quite different from the Bhotiya dogs I saw in Garhwal.

Raghu.

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Dilliwala

Thanks for the link, Raghu. Seems I've been making the same mistake as others when calling them HSD in English, but had it right when calling them Bhotia. But it appears India Post had it wrong too! A pic of Bhotia/dokhyi with the label "Himalayan Sheep Dog".

But Amritsar is near the foothills of the Himalayas, as it says on the 'About' page? Quite literally stretching it!