The Sacred Birman cat breed is one of those that is very legendary and about which many legends are told. These legends do not differ very much from one another. Mr. Marcel Reney has the Buddhist monk Yotag Rooh-Ougji tell the story: "At this time, in a monastery built on the slope of the Lugh Mountains, lived the very venerable Kittah Mun Ha, the Grand Lama, the most venerable of all, whose golden beard was braided by the god Son Hio. His whole life, all his thoughts, all his gazes were dedicated to the worship and contemplation of the goddess Tsun Kyankze; Tsun Kyankze was the goddess with the sapphire eyes, the goddess of the transmigration of souls. She had given the Kitthas the power to live again after death in a sacred animal." Mun Ha had a tomcat named Sinh, who served as his oracle. Sinh was completely white with yellow eyes, only his ears, nose, tail and the tips of his paws were the color of the ground, which was a sign of the dirt and impurity of everything that touches or can touch the ground.
One evening the hostile Phoums, who came from Siam, came close to the holy place. At that very moment the high priest died, accompanied by his cat and the desperate Kitthas. The monk continued: "Then the miracle of the transmigration of souls occurred; with one leap, Sinh was on the golden throne and stood on the head of his slumped master. It was the first time that his master's eyes were no longer directed at the goddess. The cat remained motionless, contemplating the statue of the eternal goddess, and suddenly his hair turned golden yellow, his eyes deep blue like those of the goddess. As he turned his head towards the south door, the tips of his four paws turned pure white up to the place covered by the sacred garments. His eyes went commandingly from the south door to the Kitthas; they understood his look and quickly closed the heavy bronze doors, under which the first robbers had already appeared.
The temple was saved from desecration and plunder. Sinh was still on the throne, and on the seventh day, without making a single movement, his eyes still fixed on the goddess, he died. He took the soul of Mun Ha with him to offer it to the goddess Tsun Kyankze; for Mun Ha did not need to live again, he was perfect.
And seven days later the priests gathered before the statue of the goddess to choose Mun Ha's successor, and while they were begging the goddess, all the cats in the monastery ran up. All of them had turned golden yellow and had dark blue eyes instead of yellow, and they all had the sign of purity: the white tips of their paws. They silently surrounded the youngest Kittha; the dead Kitthas embodied in the cats had thus chosen the successor.
If a holy cat dies in the Lao-Tsun monastery, it is the soul of a Kitha that is freed forever and takes its place forever in the paradise of Song Hio, the god of all things golden. But woe betide anyone who kills such a cat, he will be tormented until the soul that was in the cat is calmed down and forgives him."
So much for the legend, which dresses the origin of the Birman cat in a romantic fairy tale.
