Have you ever seen a Tibetan mastiff face-to-face? Certainly, if you've had the experience, you could hardly forget it. As a special kind of dog living on the Tibetan Plateau, these mastiffs are awesomely huge and outstandingly fierce, yet they also cooperate with human beings. Moreover, these dogs are the subject of Yang Zhijun's book, Tibetan Mastiff, a work categorized as one of this year's major releases, alongside Jia Pingwa's Qing Qiang and Yu Hua's Brothers.

Tibetan Mastiff's story takes place in the early days of the People's Republic of China. In fact, author Yang Zhijun is directly recounting the firsthand experiences of his father, when he lived on the Tibetan prairie as a journalist, alongside a mastiff named GangRiSenGe, or snow lion. Yet despite the impressive name, GangRiSenGe was an unpopular dog, and regarded as an enemy by other Tibetan mastiffs. This animosity arose since GangRiSenGe came from another pack, which had constantly been at loggerheads with the local mastiffs.

To win over other Tibetan mastiffs is not an easy thing, and Gang Ri Sen Ge had to endure numerous fights before gaining the recognition and respect of the local pack. As such, one of the interesting things about Yang Zhijun's work is the detailed analysis of these dogs' psychological behavior.  Indeed, Yang depicts the Tibetan mastiffs not only as dogs but also as smart animals with their own emotional worlds. When asked how he came to understand the dogs in this way, Yang talks about the animistic beliefs that exist out on the Tibetan steppe.

"This would be called personification in literature, yet I don't believe that this is a complete explanation. Against the cultural background of Tibetan Buddhism, prairie herdsmen think in an ancient and traditional way, which is guided by religious belief, and in their eyes, all animals have intelligence.  In fact, even stones, trees and the sky are regarded as living things, and since the herders can interact with these objects, they can definitely communicate with Tibetan mastiffs, which are almost like family members, shouldering various heavy burdens. Therefore, I'm just trying to see things in the way that ordinary herdsmen do, so that the Tibetan mastiff in my book is just like a human being, with a changing emotional world and psychological behavior."

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