One of the most fascinating mysteries of the feline world is contained in the lagoonal blue gaze of these bewitching cats.
Buddhist monk Yotag Rooh-Ougji told the following story:
"Centuries ago there existed, on the slopes of the Lugh mountains, in Burma, a monastery inhabited by good and mild Kittah priests, devoted to the cult of the goddess Tsun Kyan Kse, with the golden body and sapphire eyes, goddess of transmigration, great mediator who made the Kittah friars reborn as animals after death. The high priest Kittah Mun Ha also lived in that place, who had the faithful Sihn, a white cat with yellow eyes, as his oracle.
One day, however, the serenity of that distant place of meditation was shattered by the arrival of the infidels who entered the monastery, killing all the monks; the high priest also fought strenuously but was overwhelmed and fell dead in the temple in front of the statue of his goddess. Sihn then climbed onto his friend's body and stared at the goddess's face, as he had seen her do so many times...He did not notice the metamorphoses that occurred in him while he watched over his master's long journey; his coat became the golden color of the goddess, his paws, muzzle and beautiful tail became brown like the earth, but the goddess gave Sihn what was most beautiful and made his eyes equal to her own, similar to the purest and most shining blue sapphires... only the tips of the paws, resting on the body of the high priest, remained white as a sign of purity.
After watching over his master for a few days Sihn died, but all the other temple cats underwent the same transformation and when the monks gathered to elect Mun Ha's successor all the monastery cats entered the hall and surrounded the youngest of the monks to choose him as successor to the dead abbot. The cats were in fact the reincarnations of the Kittah monks who died in the battle against the barbarians. From then on, every time a sacred cat dies in Lao Tsun's monastery, the soul of a monk becomes free and enters heaven."
The History
The first Birman couple entered France in 1919;
they say it was given as a gift by Abbot Yotag Rooh-Ougji to two Frenchmen, Auguste Pavie and her husband, Major Gordon Russel, stationed in Burma with the task of protecting the temples of Lao Tsun, as a sign of gratitude. Of the Birmans couple However, only the female, named Sita, fortunately pregnant, survived the journey, while poor Maldapur died during the crossing that was supposed to take him from the East to France. Unfortunately, however, the descendants of this couple did not survive. In 1925 two other Birmans cats were exported to France: Orloff and Xenia De Kaabaa, from which the first European Birmans kittens were born.
According to another version, it was the industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, in 1920, who brought with him a couple of Birmans, purchased at a high price from an unfaithful servant of the temple of Lao Tsun.
In 1935, six Burmese cats were sold for 3000 francs to Princess Ratibor-Hohenlohe, and the following year Marcel Reney saw these animals in the castle of Francavilla-Bisio, but their traces disappeared after 1940. After the Second World War the The first known Birman is found in Germany, Nadine DeKhlaramour, a cat imported in 1964 by Mrs. Anneliese Hackmann. Nadine was therefore not only the mother of all German Burmese but also the grandmother of English Birman and most Birmans Americans.
It is not entirely certain that in the 1960s the Californian breeder G.Griwold was able to purchase another pair of Birman originating from Cambodia.
In 1950 the Birman was renamed the Sacred Cat of Burma and in 1966 there was official recognition of the breed.
Since then, the success of the Sacred Cat of Burma shows no signs of stopping, which is to blame all the admirers of this splendid feline.
