Tashila Kennels (1980) became Tushita in 1998

*If anyone should have any photos of my dogs from back in the 80s and 90s, I would be very grateful if you would send them to me.*

In 1977 I went to Nepal and India, where I lived in and visited many Tibetan monasteries - this was my first encounter with a Lhasa Apso, or "dog from Lhasa" as the Tibetans call them... Lhasa being the capitol city of Tibet.

I had never been a "small dog" person and had large dogs all my life, but was instantly captivated by the Lhasa Apsos in Kopan Monastery, (Nepal) the Monastery at Sarnath (India plains) and then the ones owned by the Tibetans in "Little Tibet" or Dharamsala, Himalayas, India.

On my return to Melbourne, Australia in 1978 I found in our main city's newspaper (not realising the rarity of the breed at all) a heading under "Dogs for Sale" which read "Tibetan Monastery Dogs". I rang immediately to find out more and sure enough they were the 'real thing' - I was soon surrounded by a sea of tiny black Lhasa puppies, bred by the charming Melland Family.

I had only come to get a pet, I thought, but one little one pushed, growled and shoved her way to me, climbed on my lap and growled at every other one that came near me - she chose me. Her stud name was Kyiring Bahika, but she was given a call name a couple of weeks later by a Tibetan Lama as "Tashi", which means 'good luck'. I called her 'Tashi-la' which means 'love' when the 'la' is added and so the first Prefix was Tashila Kennels: 'good luck and love'. Tashi-la went everywhere with me and was the love of my life.

In 1980 she was mated with Keela Sirkhi (Khi being his call name) and a beautiful litter of six puppies were born. Each were given Tibetan names and a 'naming ceremony' as the Tibetans did. I kept one female from this litter, Tashila Dhondrup.



Thank you to Mr. Arnold Townson for this information and his dedication to preserving the lines of Lhasa Apsos and generosity in sharing those with others.

The following litter registration appeared in the KCC Gazette of January 1981:

TUSHILA Mr & Mrs ES Morcom 23/5/80 2M 2F 70623/70626
Sire: Keela Serkhi (N) 351089
Dam: Kyiring Bahika (V) 17688
The litter included:
M Tushila Chombpe (V) 70623 gold, white
M Tushila Dorje (V) 70624 gold, white, black
F Tushila Padme (V) 70625 gold, white, black
F Tushila Dhondrup (V) 70626 gold, white, black

In 1990 my house in Eltham, Melbourne, was destroyed by fire and I lost everything... My heart broke for the loss of Tashi who was inside the house at the time as we were out to dinner!  

In 1998, I decided that my wounds were healed and I truly wanted to begin breeding again.  I chose the Prefix 'Tushita' which means "heaven", but later I saw the similarity in the two names! I contacted several breeders looking for the 'old lines' and finally I was referred to Mrs. Pat Davis who so kindly let us have a beautiful breeding pair: *Udelewar Tropical Wind (M) and Udelewar Jacks Sweety (F).   We called them Norbu and Madu. *SEE TENZIN'S PEDIGREE FOR THEIR PEDIGREE AND LINEAGE.

Madu is Tenzin's mother and has lived happily with Mrs. M. Dolic for over 8 years now. She is spoilt, loved and adored and the feeling is mutual! Madu was retired very young from the show ring as she did not like it. Here she is shown totally clipped off as she lives in the Outback of South Australia where it's far too hot for a Lhasa coat.

Tenzin was the mainstay of our lines... He will always remain a beautiful memory in our hearts and we feel he has never left us.

Tenzin and has produced some of the most beautiful Lhasa puppies in our lines and is the male 'foundation' of our lines in many ways.

Having lived with the original Tibetan dogs and Tashi having so many Tibetan lines in her, my desire to breed back to the original dog grew stronger than ever. I began to study what was going on in the Lhasa world and my interest in breeding grew to become a fascination for me. Since then Tushita has continued to breed better, more "Tibetan" dogs with each passing year.