The country of origine

Don’t hesitate to click on the different pictures displayed on this page to enlarge them and have a better view!

On this page you will learn alot about the Birman cat and we are sure this is knowledge that you would never expected to gain otherwise. With thanks to this special section, you will be able to chose what you wish to view at first, so, we will wander you thought the time, the Asian continent and finally you will learn that the Birman cats are linked directly or indirectly with the phylosophy of Buddhism.

Here we start with the origin of the Sacred cat of Burma :
The Birman cat has been imported and bred in France since (and officially) for 1850 and saved of extinction (due to the second world war) thanks to some good souls, a mistake in the popular belief tells they are a French breed, it’s false, they do really are of ASIAN origin, as their name says they are from Burma.

They say it’s a legend but if it really were, they would not be called The Sacred Cats of Burma, the Holly Birman, Birmans, the Holy cat’s, Temple guardians and of course their deep blues eyes won’t be able to charm you from the first sign!

So reading this page will be for you very interesting, so that the birth of the breed is surrounded by mystery!

Their name came from the fact they lived with Burman priester (Budders or not, or the both of it) in their temples, so that and as they are from Burma and lived in Holy Temples it was logical and normal to call them: “the Sacred cat of Burma, the Holy Birmans.
Here a picture of the temple Quanfu in Japan?

 

Thanks to some Bonzes or Presters, whose’s some couples originally from specimens of their own breedings have been offered to people that they thought being enough humble and trustful, those cats conquested the world step by step. That’s why and now, why everybody can have the possibility to have one of those little ball of fluff with some big dark blue eyes. Here are some Buddhas praying.

Birmania; in the national language: “Myanman” , capital : « Rangoun. », is a country located in South Weast of Asia, here we will show you some maps to let you see where is it and don’t hesitate to elarge them by clicking on the pictures.
** (the texts verification momentelly stops here, thanks you for your patience)**
It’s a country  surrounded by :

In starting from the right side and in going down: Thailand, The Laos and Vietnam (Cambodge), followed by Malaysia and Indonesia (shown on another map)

B)     In starting from the the left Side and in going up: India and its province:
“The Bangladesh”, theBhutann (shown on another map) and China, we are told that    somewhere between China, Birmania, the Tibet and Inda, there is alittlee landconsideredd as the Holly birth place of Buddhaa !.  Then, we have,Nepall and Tibet being a part of China.

Here some other maps to give you a better view, please don°t hesitate to click on it to view closer

 

 

 

 

Then, those gorgeous cats have travelled a very long way to us and also to be shown for the very first time at the First Universal Exhibition in Paris, while the second world war period.
A book is available in English and French about he sacred cat of Burma, explaining the mystery of this breed°s birth but also their History.

The Little summery of the National History of this country click here and to view some pictures of the country done by the photograph and reporter Tomas Tomek (in French but the picture are so nice), click here

His real name in many languages; In English: Birman, in French Sacré de Birmanie, in Deutch: Heilige Birmaan, in German Heilige Birma.
Also known as the Sacred Cat of Burma or Saint Birman or again: Holly Birman..
Some photos on this page are from: The Secrets of the Sacred Cat of Burma book

His Origines, up uppon one time in Asia

The Birman is said to born in western Burma; and certainly cats with similar markings are recorded in documents from ancient Thailand.
One story claims that a pair was given as a gift to an Englishman named Major Gordon Russell and his friend August Pavie by the priests of the Khmer people; another, that the cats were acquired by an American named Vanderbilt from a servant who had once been at the temple of Lao-Tsun where the cats were kept as sacred animals (to know more about please read the legend)

 

Whatever the name of their new owners, most historians agree that a original couple of two cats were shipped to France and that the male died on the way.
The female, named Sita, is said to have given birth to in kittens and so a kitten named Poupee de Madalpour.

In 1925 the year of the recognition
In 1925 it is recorded beyond doubt that the Federation Feline (the FIFe)
The French recognised the Sacred cat of Burma as a championship breed.
A photograph taken in 1930 shows the male of the day named Dieu d°Arakan which became the blue-point for the breed.

He was owned by M. Baudoin- Crevoisier, well known as a breeder of Birmans at that time.
Later Dieu d’Arakan was sold, together with six other Birmans, to Princess Ratibor and she subsequently left them in her will to the Duke d’Aosta.
Eventually their ownership was transferred to the Countess Giriode Panissera and their pedigree line became worldwide famous.
During the war M. Baudoin- Crevoisier managed to keep a few cats entire. His champion male Orlaff de Kaabaa and his female Xenia de Kaabaa became the breed’s foundation cats.

Some pictures from the past :

Poupée de Madalpur

Manou de Madalpour

Orloff de Kaabaa

The great migration !
In Germany a line of Birmans was maintained by Hanna Kreuger of the “von Frohnau” cattery and Liselotte von Warner of the “von Irak “cattery.
Together with descendants of Orloff and Xenia they formed the nucleus of the post-war breeding stock.
The Birman first travelled to the USA in 1959 when Dr and Mrs Siepel of the “Janacques “cattery imported a male Irrouaddi du Clos Fleuri.
Birmans arrived in Britain in 1964 when a male and two females were sent from France to Elsie Fisher and Margaret Richards, these two breeders registered a joint cattery name, Paranjoti.

The Legend

The legend of the Sacred of Burma
This is the part of the page is about the legend and so the beginning of their History; it will let you know where do we come from and why the
Seal-point colour is told as their real and original colour which is the more famous one, we have gloves but it isn°t totally natural!!

The true legend of the Birman, source: the Taron cattery website;
The Following was Taken from a Passage in the book Cat in the Mysteries of Religion and Magic

The Mysteries of Religion and Magic and was not altered with the exception of the added (Birman), to clarify, there have been a lot of questions as to how authentic any of this information is. 
Also it was the opinion of Russell Gordon that the Siamese was possibly descended from the Birman, which due to the total lack of evidence astounds us.

The Sacred Cat of Burmah (Birman) is yet more veiled in obscurity than its supposed descendant the Siamese and, we are indebted
to Russell Gordon for the only authentic account of this species that has reached our shores.

He gained his information during the Burmese War of 1885 Whilst is serving as an officer in the English Army occupying Burmah. His position enabled him to protect certain kittahs, or priests, whose lives were in danger, and in return they bestowed on him unprecedentedprivileges of entry into their secret and sacred places.
From his account we learn that the Indian Brahmins were the bitter enemies of the people of Khmer and their beloved kittahs.

From the commencement of the eighteenth century they had mercilessly pursued and massacred these priests, who, to escape from their persecuting zeal, fled to North Burmah, where the mountains afforded security from pursuit.
There, amid chaotic labyrinths and dizzy precipices, the indomitable kittahs founded the marvelous subterranean Templeof Lao-Tsun (the Abode of the Gods), and practiced the secret rites that were closed to all but the higher castes among their own people.
Gordon describes the Temple of Lao-Tsun, as ” one of the greatest marvels of the East”, situated to the East of Lake Incaougji, betweenMagaoung and Sembo, in an almost desert region of immense peaks and chaotic labyrinths, it offers a barrier of insurmountable walls. Here there still existed in 1898 the last kittahs (priests), and as a most extraordinary favour I was permitted to see and observe themand their sacred animals.

Following the rebellion and the English occupation, at the base of Bhamo (a base very isolated and distant from Mandalay), we had to protect the kittahs against a Brahmin invasion, and we saved them from certain massacre and pillage. Their Lama-kittah received me and, presented me a plaque representing the Sacred Cat at the feet of a bizarre deity, whose eyes aremade of two long sapphires (specimen “No. 4108 in my collection at Mildenhall), and after having shown me the sacred cats, in number about ahundred, explained their origin to me.
This, he did by relating the following beautiful legend : When, with the malevolent moon, the barbarian Siamese Thais came to the mountains where the Sun Mun-Ha was living in the Templeof Lao-Tsun.

 

Mun-Ha, the most precious among the most precious, for whom the god Song-Hio had woven the beard of gold.
This venerable priest had ever lived in rapt contemplation of Tsun-Kyankse, the goddess with eyes of sapphire who presided over the transmutation of souls about to receive their dues, whose searching gaze none could evade.
Mun-Ha had an oracle who dictated his decisions, and this was his cat Sinh, whom the kittahs fervently revered.
Seated close to his dread master, Sinh lived in the contemplation of the goddess. The beautiful animal’s eyes were yellow like gold from the reflection of the metallic beard of Mun-Ha, yellow like the amber body of the goddess with the sapphire eyes. One night, at the rising of the moon, the Thais menacingly approached the sacred Temple.

Then, invoking destiny, Mun-Ha died, weighed down by years and anguish. He died in the presence of his goddess ; close beside him was his divine cat, and the kittahs lamented their cruel loss. But suddenly, the miracle of immediate transmutation took place. Sinh bounded on to the holy Throne.
Supported on the head of his stricken master he faced the goddess, and the hair along his spine blanched to a golden hue. His eyes, golden of the gold of the beard woven by the god Song-Hio, his eyes changed to a blue “immense abysmal sapphire” like to the eyes of the goddess. His four feet, brown as the earth, his four feet which contacted the venerable skull whitened to the claws, to the toe-tips, thus purified by the touch of the puissant dead.

Then Sihn turn toward the South Door, his imperious gaze, in which could be read an imperative order, possessed of an invincible force the kittahs obeyed.
Then they closed on the ancestral enemy the bronze doors of the holy Temple, and passing by their subterranean tunnel they routed the profane invaders.” Sinh refused all nourishment, and would not quit his Throne”.
He continued standing erected and facing the goddess “mysterious priest” fixing his steadfast gaze on her eyes of sapphire, partaking of their fire and sweetness. Seven days after the death of Mun-Ha, erect on his purified feet of white, without lowering an eyelash, he died.

Thus was borne away towards Tsun-Kyankse the soul of Mun-Ha, which was too perfect for earth.
But, for the last time, his look turned slowtowardrds the South Door. Seven days after the death of Sinh, the kittahs assembled before Tsun-Kyankse to choose the successor of Mun-Ha.
Then….Oh wonder !…. There came in slow procession the hundred cats of the Temple.
Their feet were gloved in white ; their snowy hair emitted the reflection of gold, and the topazes of their eyes had changed to sapphires. The kittahs fell prostrate in an attitude of devout fear, and waited.

Did they not know that the souls of their masters inhabited the harmonious forms of the sacred animals ? and these, solemn and grave, surrounded Legoa “the most youthful of the priests” and so revealed the will of Heaven.
When a sacred cat dies in the temple of Lao-Tsun, the soul of a kittah re-enters,to quit no more the mysterious paradise of Song-Hio, the god of gold.

Unhappy who even involuntarily hasten the end of these formidable and venerable cats : the most dreadful torments are reserved for them, that the soiling pain may be appeased.”(From the French of Marcelle Adam.)
Gordon, who does not relate this legend, in the remarks from which I have quoted, says of it, that ” The legend is pretty but explains nothing scientifically”. . . .One may feel assured that the Burmese (Birman).

This cat is a very ancient race, but it will, I think, be impossible ever to obtain documentary evidence about a race so rare that no breeder or author in the two continents with whom I have corresponded within the last thirty years, has anything more than a sketch of them, and only knows them by the writings of Auguste Pavie and of myself.
“Gordon describes the Burmese (Birman”) cats as being much like the Siamese in colouring, but says they had white toes on all four feet, long hair, and magnificent bushy tails which they usually carried over their backs in squirrel