Although a cat resembling the Burmese was depicted in a book of poems published
during the Ayudha period in Thailand between 1350 and 1767, the Burmese breed as we know
it tody was developed in the United States (USA) in 1930, when a brown female cat of
Oriental type, named Wong Mau, was imported to the West Coast from Burma.
As there were no similar cats for her to mate with, she was bred to a Siamese. All kittens
born were therefore hybrids, but when some were mated back to their mother, brown kittens
resembling the mother were produced.
The progress of the Burmese in the USA was not smooth. Siamese breeders complained
that Wong Mau was nothing more than a Siamese with poor colour. Indeed when a Burmese was
exhibited at a show in San Francisco in 1938, Siamese breeders raised such a hue and cry
that the cat was withdrawn from competition.
The breed's prospects were further diminished when the Cat Fanciers Association
(CFA) officially de-recognised Burmese in 1947 because most members of the breed could not
meet the CFA's requirement that a purebred cat be descended from three generations of
similar cats. Despite the importation of three Burmese form Rangoon in 1941, breeders were
still obliged to outcross to Seal point Siamese in order to keep from in-breeding their
Burmese to extinction.
Fortunately, other USA registries continued to recognise Burmese, thus ensuring
the survival of the breed. By 1956 there were even enough three-generation Burmese
available to merit reinstatement in the CFA register.
The first Brown Burmese were imported into the United Kingdom in 1948 and this
breed is now one of the most numerous on the show bench. Burmese cats were introduced to
Australia in 1957 when a cat called Tomahawk was imported from the UK.
Of the other colours, the Blue was the first to appear in the UK (1955) and was
such an unexpected event that the first kitten was registered as "Sealcoat Blue
Surprise". Since then, with intensive breeding programs, Lilac, Cream, Red, Chocolate
and Tortoiseshell Burmese have been produced, all having the same temperament.
