while I was in Dharamsala, I was informed by Jamyang Norbu, that they had a Tibetan Dog Specialist who knew about all the Tibetan breeds of dogs, and this person had written an article about "Tibetan Dogs" in "The Tibet Journal" of Summer 1981Edition.
This man, to whom I was referred, was Jigme Taring, but I had no idea that it was Prince Jigme Taring, son of Taring Raja of Sikkim, or the son of the King of Sikkim. Prince Jigme Taring had married to Rinchen Dolma Tsarong who was previously one of the wives of Tsarong Shape who had opened the access to Tibet to all the foreigners who visited Tibet after 1912, like the Cuttings for example.
In those days, both Jigme Taring and Rinchen Dolma, also were both sent to Darjeeling, if I recall well, and they were the first two Tibetans to speak fluent english! They, later on, both lived at "Taring House" in Lhasa where they received all the foreigners visiting Tibet, basically until the chinese invasion.
I have met with both Prince Jigme and Dolma Rinchen Taring, also nicknamed Mary, at their own other "Taring House" in Rajpur, Himmachal Pradesh, in India, on the 5th of January, 1983. It was a bit funny, because I was travelling with my books and in one of them, "The Complete Lhasa Apso" by Carolyn Herbel, First Edition, Second Printing 1981, there was an allusion to Mrs. Mary Taring, on page 22, under a picture of Mr. C. Suydam Cutting, flanked by Tsarong Shape and his wife... and showed it to her.
In the book under the picture was written the following, some of you who have the same can verify...
"Mr. C. Suydam Cutting (center) with the Tibetan Commander-Chief Tsarong Shape and his wife. Tsarong Shape's wife, now Mrs. Mary Taring is the author of "Daughter of Tibet" published by Murray."
.... and looking at this, Rinchen Dolma, grabbed a pen and wrote by hand the following, right underneath what was written....
"This is my eldest sister, Mrs. Pema Dolkar Tsarong. I also married him and later I married to Mr. Jigme Taring. Please read my book Daughter of Tibet and you will know all about us.
With best wishes,
Rinchen Dolma Taring.
5th January 1983."
.... and I still have that book with me... and some of the pictures that were taken during this unique occasion where I was able to meet and discuss with Mrs. Taring. I believe that she might be still alive.
Nevertheless, I have met with Prince Jigme Taring at several other occasions in India. A few times in Dharamsala, since he was a high official of the Tibetan Government and he even visited us at our house down the hill from Dharamsala, to see our dogs, and even in Delhi with Dr. Eric and Barbara Ratledge!
Prince Jigme Taring was a very fine gentleman and we did correspond by mail on the span of a few years.
OK! Here are a few pictures of these nice people who, in the past had found some dogs for the Cuttings in the thirties, and I should look further, in my boxes, because I have some more of the Tibetan Dog Specialist who thought that my dogs were good Apsos...
The Prince, his wife and myself at "Taring House" in Rajpur on the 5th of January 1983. On that day, Jigme Taring was wearing a vest made from the hair of his bitch Peggy that he is holding in his hands.
The same with one of their grandchild.
The Princely Couple with two of their daughters, one more dog and Lisette Aubin , my ex with the grandson.
Prince Jigme visiting us at our place down the hill from Dharamsala
The Prince leaving our place by taxi
I've posted some picts above about the Tibeatan Dog Specialist, Prince Jigme Taring and his wife... and our visit to their place. I should perhaps tell you how it happened!
This was during the second voyage to get some dogs. Here in Canada, after bringing back some dogs we were told by the CKC that we needed someone to authentify these dogs and get them registered in India, because they didn't want to register unidentified dogs... so, in short, we needed to find as much information as possible on them and find some people to help us that way.
So, you can imagine my interest when Jamyang Norbu and if I remember well, the head librarian at the Dharamsala had told me the same too... that there was a Tibetan Dog Specialist! There was the article about dogs that he had written in the Tibet Journal of the summer 1981 right there at the library and read it in a flash... and, as you can imagine yourself, I was eager to meet that Mr. Taring.
The funny thing though is that when they were saying "Jigme" Taring, I was understanding "Jimmy" Taring. I thought that Jimmy was a funny name for a Tibetan! :-)
Anyways, I got his address in Rajpur.... and, from there on, urged to go to meet him!
So, we tried to figure out how to go from Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh to Rajpur, Uttar Pradesh! It was complicated.... go by bus to Chandigarh and from there change on another one to some other places... like Ludiana ... anyways very complicated, because we had to come down from the foothills of the Himalayas to the flatter lands, travel eastbound and go back noth to Rajpur? It sounded very exhausting... and would have required 4 or 5 days that way.... and lots of work and long days in buses or trains. I wished I had a car!
Well! To simplify things to the maximum... we finally decided that the best way to go would be by cab!!! Yes! hire a Taxi.... from Dharamsala to Rajpur and back... by different roads! It has been the only time in my life that I ever took a Taxi for three days! :-)
For the taxi driver, it was also the longest trip that he ever did too with clients!
So, there was my girlfriend, the taxi driver, who was a nice young fellow which we often hired in Dharamsala and who was quite nice to us... and myself. The car was a little Renault, or the Indian version of one. It wasn't an Ambassador, the most common car in India at the time. Ours was quite compact and fairly new... It took quite a bit of beating on the rough roads! It wasn't owned by the driver, but his boss who was a nice fellow himself was really happy about such long trip... and he wanted to come himself with us... but we told him that we didn't want him to come this time... because it had happened that he had come to Delhi with us! He had profited from our hospitality before! :-)
Anyways, it was a very nice trip, stopping wherever we wanted.... to eat and sleep... had to provide the driver with an Hotel room too! Got pulled over at a few check points because they wondered if the Taxi was lost or stolen? :-)
It was quite the Taxi trip on the small roads of Northern-India... and I wish such a trip to everyone... once in a lifetime Indian Taxi Trip!
That was fun and meeting with the Tarings was well worth it... still today!
