The Legend
About the origin of the Birman a beautyful legend is told

Once upon a time the Khmer-people built beautyful temples far up in the mountains. One of these temples; Lao-Tsun was built in the honour of the god Song-Hyo and the godess Tsun-Kyan-Kyse. In and around the temple lived 100 pure white cats with greenish eyes. These cats were considered sacred by the priest and was believed to carry the priests souls to heaven when they died. One of these cats Sihn, was a very affectionate companion for his master Mun-ha whos golden beard was braided by the god Song-hio herself. When Mun-ha was killed during a riot, Sihn jumped onto his masters body and glazed at into the godess Tsun-Kyan-Kyse Sapphireblue eyes. As he looked at the godess a tranformation began: Sihns eyes turned blue as the godess, his ears, legs and head turned brown as the ground where the dead priest lied, his back turned golden as the old priest beard. Only his feet remained white as a symbol of purity. Sihn died 7 days later carrying Mun-ha´s soul to paradise. The next day all the other templecats had transformed as Sihn did.

History
The history of the Birman is not quite clear before after World War II. After the War only one pair excisted: Orloff & Xenia de Kaaba. All Birman pedigrees can be traced back to this pair. By gently mixing in other breeds, such as Siamese and Himaliyan the Birman was in 1955 recognized as an independent breed.