The breed standard requires dark brown eyes and a black nose, although liver-colored Lhasas have a brown nose. The texture of the coat is heavy, straight, hard, neither woolly nor silky, and dense. The Lhasa Apso is a long-lived breed, with many living in good health into their early 20s. The average age for these dogs is 12–14. Their vision may deteriorate with age, but they are not sight-oriented dogs and endure blindness with few noticeable changes in behavior. Today, in the US, there exists a unique group of Lhasa Apsos known within the fancy as the Gompa dogs. (Gompa is the Tibetan word for a monastery's main meditation hall.) These Lhasa Apsos are direct descendants of the Lhasa Apsos from the Drepung monastery in Tibet, where, in 1941, Lama Gyen Yeshe was gifted Preserving the Future, Enlisting the Past his first Lhasa Apso by a High Reincarnate Lama.
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