A long time ago several groups of Kittah-priests lived in the mysterious land of Tibet. They adored the god Song-Hyo and the goddess Tsun Kyan-Kse. They built wonderful places to worship their gods: beautiful decorated temples covered with gold- leaf and surrounded by high walls for protection. These high walls offered protection to the priests and at the same time secured the hundred of white cats that were kept in each temple. The cats played an important role in the religion of the Kittah’s: some of the priests had such pure souls that they couldn’t be missed on earth. When they died the goddess transmitted the souls of the priests to the white cats. In a temple built on the mountain Lugh lived a priest called Mun-Ha. He was very religious so that it was said that the god Song-Hyo himself created the tresses in Mun-Ha’s golden beard. Mun-Ha’s thoughts were dedicated only to the god and the goddess of the soul-transmission: it was the goddess who decided which of the priests’ souls were allowed to live again in the body of a sacred cat and it was she who decided when this soul was transmitted to another Kittah-priest. Tsun Kyan-Kse had sapphire eyes. The white cat Sinh who was always at the side of his master Mun-Ha had golden eyes: a reflection of his masters golden beard. In an evil night the temple was attacked by a band of murderous Phoums from Siam who killed Mun-Ha who was still meditating before the golden statue of the goddess. Until his last moment he gazed into the sapphire eyes of Tsun Kyan-Kse and then the miracle of the soul transmission took place: Sinh jumped on the head of his fallen master and continued to gaze into the eyes of the goddess. At that moment Sinh’s eye colour changed into sapphire just as radiant as the eyes of the goddess. His white fur changed into a dark colour at the extremities of his body and a dark mask appeared on his face. The rest of his body took on a golden colour except for his feet: they turned white at the spots where his feet touched the hair of the old priest. Only once Sinh turned his head towards the huge temple gate and the Kittah-priests managed to close the gate so that further ransacking was stopped. For seven days and nights Sinh remained seated there and gazed into the goddesses’ eyes, neither eating nor drinking. He died on the seventh day taking Mun-Ha’s soul to Tsun Kyan-Kse.

It was seven days later when the Kittah-priests collected around the statue of the goddess to decide who would become the successor of Mun-Ha. All the temple cats appeared and all of them had Sinh’s colouring pattern. In utter silence the cats grouped themselves around the youngest of the Kittah-priests and thus the goddess choose Mun-Ha’s successor.

This is the legend of the Sacred Birman Cat: they have the brilliant blue eyes of the goddess, the golden hue that reflected from both their master and the golden statue of the goddess and with dark brown as a symbol of the impurity of the earth: the wicked murder of the priest but with white feet as a symbol of the purity of the soul.