Tibetan Terrier History

As legend has it the Tibetan Terrier originated in the Lost Valley of Tibet over 2000 years ago, they were raised in the monasteries and occasionally given to visiting dignitaries or someone who had done the Lamas a favor, but they were never sold. Known as the ‘Holy Dog of Tibet’ they were also given to travelers about to embark on dangerous journeys and became known as the ‘Good Luck Dog’ as well. (When forced to leave Tibet the present Dalai Lama took his Tibetan Terrier ‘Senge’ with him.)

In 1922 a Dr. A.R.H. Greig of England was working for the Women’s Medical Service of India, serving in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) which is located near the Himalayan Mountains and the borders of India and Nepal. A Tibetan family had come to Dr. Greig for a medical operation for the wife, and that is when the doctor met her first Tibetan Terrier ‘Lily’. After the successful operation Dr. Greig was given a choice of puppy’s from Lily’s recent litter as token of the family’s gratitude, and she choose ‘Bunti’ a gold and white female. A short time later friends of Dr. Greig’s acquired a second Tibetan born Tibetan Terrier, a male named ‘Rajah’, and on Christmas Day 1924 the first Tibetan Terrier litter was born in India, from the union of Bunti and Rajah. Bunti had a second litter on July 25, 1925 also sired by Rajah.

In 1926 Dr. Greig arrived back in England with three Tibetan Terriers, Bunti, Chota Turka (a female from the first litter on Christmas Day 1924) and Ja-Haz (a male from the second litter in 1925). The three Tibetans were originally registered as ‘Lhasa Terriers’, (their classification in India) under the kennel name “Ladkok’, owned by Dr. Greig’s mother, Mrs A. Renton Greig of Roydon, England. Bunti was then bred with her son Ja-Haz from the second litter and the first Tibetan Terriers in England were born, ‘Burrah Sahib’, ‘Mr. Binks’ and ‘Bodmash’ all of the ‘Ladkok’ kennel. Dr. Greig returned to India with ‘Mr. Binks’ who became the first Tibetan Terrier champion in the world winning four challenge certificates. The doctor then acquired her next native bred Tibetan Terrier from the Buddiman Lama of Tibet, an all white male named ‘Thoombay’, who was returned to Roydon, England.

In 1930 a panel of Indian Kennel Club judges agreed that Dr. Grieg’s dogs were a distinct breed and to be known as Tibetan Terriers. During this year Dr. Grieg and her colleague Miss Nye obtained two more native bred Tibetan Terriers from the Tikbir Daja Lama, a female named ‘Yukshee of Lamleh’ and a male named ‘Miggo of Gomba’. During the early 1930’s Dr. Grieg and Miss Nye moved back to England with their Tibetan Terriers to Woodlands, Grouville on the Island of Jersey. The Tibetan Breeds Association was formed in England in 1934, and championship status was given to the Tibetan Terrier by the British Kennel Club in 1937. It was in that year that Dr. Grieg moved her Tibetans back from Jersey to Roydon, and with such interest from abroad the first dogs left England for Italy.

After seeing a picture of the Tibetan Terrier in an English dog book, (the photo was of ‘Jana of Lamleh’ in the “Book of Dog’) a Dr. Harry Murphy of Great Falls, Virginia purchased a Lamleh female puppy named ‘Gremlin Cortina’, and in 1956 ‘Girlie’, as she was called, became the first Tibetan Terrier in North America’. Several months later, Alice Murphy from Virginia received a black and tan male named ‘Kalai of Lamleh’ (known as ‘Gregory’) from Dr. Greig in England, and on March 31, 1957, the first official litter of Tibetan Terriers in the United States were born in Great Falls,Virginia from the union of ‘Gremlin Cortina’ and ‘Kalai of Lamleh’. There were five puppies in the litter and these dogs formed the basis of Alice Murphy’s Kalai Kennels, named after ‘Kalai of Lamleh’. Later on that year a number of Virginia area Tibetan Terrier fanciers got together and formed the Tibetan Terrier Club of America, Alice Murphy was their first president. By the early 1960’s Tibetan Terrier breeders started to appear in Virginia, New York, Connecticut and St. Louis, as well as California.