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CHOW CHOW HISTORY
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The Chow Chow is a very old Chinese breed. It is known, that the breed is about 4000 years old, maybe more. We know this from the grave-findings from Han-dynasty amongst the pictured figure "Watching Dog".
In the year 255 B.C. everything from the early dynasties in China was destroyed. This makes it impossible to reach an accurate conclusion of the origin of the breed.
The Chow Chow has always been a distinguished dog. It belonged to the emperor and the higher aristocracy. It has widely been used for hunting wolfs, bears and pheasants. It has been highly treasured as a temple dog because of its impressive appearance, its dignity, scowl and blue tongue, it should be able to keep evil spirits away. The priests and the monks in the monasteries had a great number of Chow Chows and they breed them heavily.
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As the Buddhism was introduced as a Federal religion 300 years ago B.C., the need of a holy animal arised. It should be the holy lion of Buddha. Because of the fact that there is no lions in China the Pekinese and the Chow Chows were used as holy lions. Even today we can see them as lionlike dogs that proudly embellish the entrances to the temples. In China you generally do not know the breed but in the Buddhistic monasteries they are still bred to great extent. |
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Doctor K.H. Abshagen (a Dutchman) who as an exception got access to one of these monasteries in the 1950ies, tells about the meeting with about 50 blue Chow Chows with an unusual beautiful color. Besides, the dogs impressed with their health, their harmony, building and activeness. They had a gloomy look and dark eyes that were placed with a good mutual distance.
The former emperors of China were very interested in hunting, and it is said that one of the emperors of the Tang-dynasty, had more than a couple of thousand dogs that looked like Chow Chow types. In the Winter they were used as sledge dogs.