Yaj, Thanks. This is a nice text about the TM's and other breeds of the region, but I find it very hard to believe that the various "sub-breeds", which were kept to guard sheep and cattle, supposedly [u]descended[/u] from dogs that were mainly kept to guard households. Anthropologically, the proposed direction of influence doesn't make any sense. To me, it sounds just a little too "TM biased", being the "mother of all" those LGD's etc. But maybe someone more knowledgeable on Asian breeds could shed some additional light on it? :) Dan