The Birman satin mythology and myth have no clear beginning, and there needs to be mettle evidence to back up any firm conclusions. One legend purports that the sacred temple of Lao-Tsun by 100 pure white cats with golden eyes by the Khmer people of ancient Asia. The temple was maintained by the Khmer people and guarded by priests. Mun-Ha, a revered priest, was approached by the dying temple cat Sinta, the companion of the temple’s esteemed golden goddess Tsun-Kyan-Kse. Mun-Ha, by the cat’s sudden appearance and gaze and the overwhelming sensation of departing life, immediately entranced him. His soul transferred to Sinta’s body, and at that precise moment, the cat transformed into a likeness of Tsun-Kyan-Kse. When this occurred, the white hair of the cat became golden, and the eyes became sapphire-blue.
The other cats, believing Sinta had died and been replaced, gathered around Mun-Ha and Tsun-Kyan-Kse. These cats refused to eat and drink and only interacted with one another. When their lives ended, they also passed on to human form. The small group of priests, afraid that Tsun-Kyan-Kse would become too attached to the mortal world, would not allow her to leave the image, and the older brother Sin led her away from the temple, followed by the other priests and the remaining 99 cats. The temple then vanished, where, according to legend, the cats died shortly after that, with the death of the last priest and priestess when King Anawrahta sacked Dagon in 1057 and took the sons of the princes captive. Tsun-Kyan-Kse became the goddess of transmigration.
This myth is associated with transition and change and has the same moral as the Round City myth concerning the curse of time.
These myths have been recorded, with many variations, throughout Burma’s history and are the subject of extensive contemporary discussions.
Ancient Legends and Mysteries
Ancient Eastern culture is famous for being steeped in legends and mysteries, and the story of the Birman cat is no exception. Known in its native Burma as the ‘Temple Cat,’ the Birman is said to have been the unique companion of Kittah priests, and indeed, the Birman looks every inch the sacred, holy animal. According to the legend, the temple of Lao-Tsun was destroyed during the invasion of Burma by the neighboring Annam people. The Birman’s priests gathered around the statue of their Lord, Sin, calling to their beloved cats.
In the golden glow of the statue, the cats gathered around the priests, and as the marauders approached, the priests were in a shining white light. When the light faded, the priests and cats disappeared, and all that remained was the golden statue and the Birman cats, now possessing sapphire eyes of the same color as the statue.
The Birman is the ‘Sacre de Birmanie’ because these cats acquired their striking coloration from the golden anklets and sapphire jewelry of the same name worn by the Kittah priests. Unfortunately, modern genetics has dispelled this fantastic theory. The Birman is a colorpointed cat; that is, it has a pale coat with darker color on the ears, face, legs, and tail. This type of coloration by a heat-sensitive enzyme restricts pigment production in more excellent body areas. These genetic colorpoint factors are also responsible for the distinctive blue eye color of albinos and colorpoints and suggest that Birman’s eye color is nothing more mystical than a pretty coincidence.
The Sacred Cats of Burma
Precisely, which cats helped initiate the breed we now know as the Birman is unknown. It is unknown how pure the breed remained once these cats began to interbreed with other breeds. The plight of the cat lives in the temples of Burma had become battles with time and wars that would result in the loss of so many holy artifacts, including the actual cat and the Second World War; the Birman breed came incredibly close to being extinguished.
The 1950s were a hopeful time in the breed’s history; a breeding program was initiated in France in which cats of Siamese ancestry were bred with the few remaining descendants of the sacred Burmese temple cats. Much of today’s Birman breed can very much be considered a reincarnation of the original temple cats of Burma, and many breeders desire to retain the Birman’s gentle temperament and precise coloring that has given the breed; these cats and this sacred mission, another chance so far from the land of Burma.
The Korat cats were said to have guarded silver treasures and were to bring on the fortune of the family that owned them. Any male Korat received as a gift was considered a lucky charm. Although not a breed-specific legend, the cats’ sacred status led them to be used in a breeding program to retain their lineage, and the pupil wanting to keep the cats still expected high prices. During the periods of breeding the cats at the various temples across Burma, several were sure to escape. Usually, these cats were the latter ancestors of the Birmans.
The Birman breed of cats originated in Burma. The cats and Burma form a mystical bond that is very much a desire and the task is to work out the cat from Burma. Legends of the sacred companion cats of the priests in the temples of Burma in several tales have provided the breed with an endearing mystique.
These cats were said to have been the forerunners of the modern Birman breed. The ancestors had acquired them from the cat’s true temple. In 1927, Sinh began establishing a breeding program at the temple before the cats and priests died during a raid on the temple. The legend of the cats by the gods in paintings in the temple of Louvre, where two cats with golden eyes and white fur, Moug, and Mal, were the foundation cats of similar looks for the breed. This legend is comparable to a legend from the Korat Cat. Several temples in Burma have had cats, often stored away as many as 100 at a time—the cats to keep the temple safe. Step into the cage, and I’ll kill you.
Arrival in Europe
The subsequent discovery was made during the 2nd World War when a troop of cats sought shelter in a small, forgotten cave in the mountains of Burma where they first discovered it. These cats were trying to escape the horrors and terrible scenes of human war when they arrived at the cave, where they found a Frenchman named Mr. Auguste Pavie. He was a retired political officer in the British Burmese exploitation, where he lived alone, and his only contact with the outer world was as a mail runner.
He got tired of the constant attempts by the Allies to convince him to take a war job back in Rangoon, so he chose to go into the more backward countries of Southeast Asia, and the Japanese invasion gave him special priority to enter into the government for his knowledge of the Siamese and Shan States languages. Petting these cats during sleepless nights and lonely exiles from the forces of modern war made Mr. Pavie discover that these sacred cats of Burma had changed temperament due to maltreatment conditions and a hint of possible crossbreeding.
He feared for the loss of the pure race of these cats, and he pondered upon the idea of one day bringing a pair of the sacred Burmese cats to France. He made a vow that he would keep this idea in his heart and devote the rest of his life to the service of the Burmese and leave a fair amount of remembrance that he should not return from his journey to the last days of the Burmese cats. He later wrote a poem called “A Burmese Tale” to pay homage to the cats, and when he returned to France, he never mentioned the cats to anybody. However, he would remember and secretly keep his vow until 1947, when he found and accepted a pair of pointed longhair cats as a gift from Dr. & Mme. Leclerc of Paris.
They were expensive weanlings, and Mr. Pavie was very touched by this gesture of friendship, so he took his ancestral saber and, with one dubbing the four knights of the Leclerc family, he honored the cats by naming them in Burmese pronominal names of Maung Tai and Maung Thou. Hence, this would be the second start of the sacred cats of Burma, and it was the best start of all.
When the Birman cat was first introduced in France, it was not the first place the Birman cat was. In the early years of the 20th century, a Persian cat breeder named Mrs. Vanderbilt visited the Asian continent. Throughout Asia, she visited the cities of Rangoon and Burma, and while she was there, she heard a tale of an ancient temple in Lao-too.
This temple fascinated Mrs. Vanderbilt, and as a result, she decided to make a journey to visit it. When she arrived at the temple, she found the priests and kittens. The priests were gracious to her and gave her a female cat with yellow eyes. She returned this cat to America and brought it to her Persian cattery. She never mated the cat, but she fell in love with it after remembering one of her experiences with the temple priests of Lao-too. Mrs. Vanderbilt thought the yellow-eyed female cat was Burma’s most sacred cat; afterward, she died of illness and willed all her yellow-eyed Persian cats to other breeders.
