Molosser Moment #10
Above: Marco Polo. Below and top, antique lithograph of a Tibetan Mastiff.
The first Western account of the Tibetan Mastiff is attributed to the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, who with his father and uncle traveled to Asia in the late 1200s and was the darling of the great Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan. Landing in a Genoese prison after his return, Polo dictated his memoirs to his cellmate, noting that the big dogs of Tibet were “as tall as a donkey, with a voice as powerful as a lion.”
Some critics accuse Polo of fabricating the entire trip, or at best telling it secondhand; the criticism is understandable considering some of his flubs, which include mistaking rhinoceri for unicorns. What is certain is that his writings introduced the mysterious East to a fascinated European continent – and provided a romantic footnote to a breed that many still find just as exotic.
Next: Molosser Moment #11