 The
Gompa Lhasa Apso Preservation Program Trust was
established in 2005. The Program is a small population
genetics management program seeking to perpetuate the
genetic lineage of the Gompa Lhasa Apso. This unique
gene pool now represents the last remaining vestiges of
the Apso as it developed as a landrace in its native
country of Tibet.
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 replicated in the present day
Western-bred Apso.
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