The importance of this program cannot be overstated: here, in the Gompa dogs, lies the origin of the Lhasa Apso as we know it today. Descended from ancestors in a country whose spiritual traditions are its culture, the Gompa dogs stand as a legacy from Tibet, where thousands of monasteries (and their Apsos) have been systematically destroyed since the 1950s. 

The present colony of Gompa Lhasa Apsos in the United States are direct descendants of the Apsos at the Drepung Monastery in Tibet. Like messengers from the past, they connect today's Apsos with the shaggy little dogs that once ran freely through the great halls and passageways as part of Tibetan monastery life. Although genetically equivalent to the Lhasa Apsos in current Western breeding programs, the Gompa dogs have not been bred towards a written standard of perfection; they have not been bred to type.  Because they have not been selectively bred for type, they carry genes unique to the breed … genes which are not replicated in the present day Western-bred Apso.