The Sacred Cat of Burma remains one of the most popular feline breeds in France and on the European continent while it gradually declines in the British Isles and on the American continent—in favor of more popular breeds such as the Ragdoll, for example (created from a Birman)—as the number of cats presented at competitions and the births registered by the big feline organizations like the GCCF, the CFA, and the TICA, show for ten years. Not quite one hundred years have passed since the genesis (1921) of this wonderful cat, known for its pleasant, sociable, and affectionate personality.
In fact, the breeding of Birman cats (abbreviation) did not really begin until after the Second World War, in the Fifties, by the dedicated work of a handful of breeders working with the few cats saved from previous generations. It is thanks to the diligent work of French feline technology and pre-war brand promoters/artists, such as Ms. Marcelle Adam, president of the Société Française Féline and writer/actress, as well as doctor-veterinarian Philippe Jumaud, to which we owe the development of this magnificent, princely-looking cat. The origins of the pre-war Sacred Birman Cat (abbreviated SBI) are shrouded in intentional mists.
Greed clearly seems to be the reason behind this artistic vagueness, moreover but also the latent desire to create an exceptional intermediate cat which would inherit the best of two worlds particularly popular in between two-wars Europe—Siamese and Persian. The addition of symmetrical white gloves on velvety paws and inverted V spurs under the hind legs (an original Birman trademark) adds a unique additional charm that also allows us to fine-tune the originality of this sapphire-eyed cat. The Birman is a middle cat, if one wants to adapt a Buddhist term that corresponds to its fable.
As the veterinarian Fernand Méry duly noted: “The Birman cat […] provides the link between Persian and Siamese. This trait was often highlighted by the first Birman breeders (like Mlle Madeleine Boyer of the Kaabaa Cattery) and raises the question of the more recent deviations of certain lines of modern Birmans who lean more towards a Persianized form and have, once again, lost the qualities specific to the Siamese heritage (such as the semi-long silky coat without knots, the size and morphology of the body). The Birman origin is also parallel to that of the creation of the Persian Colorpoint, which uses the same combination of cats but in a fully Persianized type (called Pre-war Khmer cat and also Himalayan). The first post-war breeders of these two breeds—Miss Boyer from the Kaabaa Cattery, Mrs. Simone Poirier from the Crespières Cattery for the Birman, and Mrs. Gamichon from the Grandes Chapelles Cattery for the Persian Colorpoint—worked together for the improvement of their two respective breeds as their pedigrees clearly show. Later, the British followed the same principles in the creation of new colors (chocolate-point / lilac-point for example), always using a Siamese and a Persian Colorpoint, which also has the advantage of already having blue eyes, in addition to the Siamese gene and hair length.
Various books and articles have been written on the mysterious origin of the Birman before 1940, but they lack scientific rigor and still leave glaring inaccuracies here and there which do not satisfy the curious academic that I am. A Birman breeder since 1987 (in Belgium, the south of France, and in the United States on both coasts), I have had the opportunity of meeting and conversing with a number of other breeders since that date. The book by Gisèle Barnay and Simone Poirier, The Secrets of the Sacred Cat of Burma, in addition to (in English) The Birman Cat by Vivienne Smith, remain the best published books on the subject, but they are no longer in print and sometimes contain errors. They also leave behind the mysterious origin of the Birman. It seemed to me, therefore, to try, as much as possible, to fill the gaps or inaccuracies left by the work of my predecessors, all the while recognizing their efforts and the means that were available to them. It is a question of forsaking the golden legend, the peddling of received ideas, in order to collect precise facts from here and there and to allow us to see the evolution of a legend over the years and publications, as with a report. It is also a question of the continued task of precise documentation of the sources, in an academic manner, when the sources exist in the books, magazines, and newspapers of the time. One can also remark that the internet abounds in whimsical sites about the Birman which peddle and magnify nonsense.
The recent online publication of the pre-war newspapers, digitized by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, (or Bibliothèque François Mitterrand (BNF)) in Paris, now allows research that was practically impossible until recently. To this must be added, of course, my wanderings in various libraries in France and Belgium for documents inaccessible to the BNF, and the purchase of the contemporary works of antique booksellers.
The discoveries that I made, after years of research and thanks to a sabbatical semester granted by my university (Point Loma Nazarene University) in the Spring of 2019, are unprecedented, and shed a new light on the origin of that which we have called: The Sacred Cat of Burma, which is a very French production, if there ever was one.
Whatever its history, incredible as we shall see, the Birman Cat remains an exceptional cat whose personality can only charm and seduce by its devotion, its hieratic side, and its loyalty. What I have written about him tells us nothing about who he really is—an extraordinary cat who subtly slips into the intricacies of your heart and gives you his trust and unlimited love which becomes one with your soul. This remarkable cat was in need of an exceptional legend, which was, in turn, woven together by poets over time ...
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