About Sacred Birman race

The Birman is medium in size, semi longhaired and displays the Himalayan coat pattern (pointed), and blue eyes. The body is long and muscular but quite stocky with thickset, strongly boned legs which have a stiff rear-legged gait. The head is rectangular with wide cheek bones and wide set ears.
The nose is straight, medium long, which means not too short, and shows a gentle indentation at its base. The paws are large and round but with distinctive pure white ‘gloves’ on the front paws and ‘gauntlets’ on the rear paws. The tail is longer, and looks like a plume.
Birmans have a keen intelligence, loving natures and soft voices. They can be almost human, talking to you and greeting you with soft ‘chirrups’, purrs and leg rubs when you come home, and yet, if you need to be left alone they are just content to be in your company without demands for attention or will just snuggle up close to you.
They are friendly and keep themselves spotlessly clean. Their silky coat does not mate and has no tendency to show knots. Their coat sheds very little. They need rather little grooming, but they love it to be brushed.
Birmans come in many colours including Seal, Blue, Red, Cream, Lilac, Torti and Tabby variations of these.
Legend

There are lots of legends around the Birman. It is said that there lived once a priest in the mountains of Lugh, many centuries ago. This priest had a long golden beard, which the god Song-Hio had braided. The priest had dedicated his life to the godess Tsun-Kyan-Kse, who had deep blue eyes like sapphires and who permitted devouted souls to transmigrate into holy animals. The favorite cat of the priest was Sinh, a white cat with golden yellow eyes and so dark brown ears, nose, legs and tail like the earth. One night the temple was robbed and the priest was murdered. Sinh, the cat mourned sitting at his head, and the miracle happened. The back of the white cat suddenly became golden, and his golden yellow eyes became blue like the sapphires.
The paws touching his dead master remained pure white thus symbolizing his innocence.In the legend the soul of a dead monk transmigrates from now on into the body of a cat. The loyal Sinh was in such a deep grief about his dead master that he died on the seventh day. Since that time all the temple cats had a golden yellow back like a golden mantle and their golden yellow eyes turned to sapphire blue.Some say that the Birmans had been imported into Europe from south east Asia in 1916 ("Sacred cats of Burma"). In 1925 the Sacred Birman was recognized by the Fédération Féline Française, the foundation member of FIFe. Almost all Birman cats trace their origine from the French Birmans. In 1959 the first Birmans were exported to the USA, and in 1965 to England. In 1967 they were recognized by CFA.