HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN BURMESE
It
is generally accepted that the Burmese breed originated from Wong Mau, a solid
colored brown female brought from Burma (now Myanmar) to the west coast of
the United States by Dr. Thompson in 1930. Wong Mau was mated to a
Siamese, the breed that most closely resembled her. The resulting kittens
were hybrids and it is likely that Wong Mau herself was a hybrid too. When
one of her sons was mated back to her, some of the kittens were brown like her.
This was the point where the Burmese breed officially began.
In
1948, the first Burmese were exported from the United States to the United
Kingdom. The lack of sufficient breeding stock again led to the
introduction of Siamese. The breed was recognized in the United Kingdom in
1952. Burmese were later exported to parts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
From then on the breed followed different courses of development in Europe as
compared to the United States until today we
have two very different looking cats with two different standards both sharing a
common ancestry.
The
European Burmese in the United States today are ancestors of those Burmese
exported to various countries during the 1950's and 1960's.
Both
the American Burmese and the European Burmese have the same, wonderful
personality. The European Burmese is a larger cat than the American
Burmese and enjoys excellent health. A major difference between the
American Burmese and the European Burmese is the larger range of colors of the
European Burmese.
European
Burmese
American Burmese
Brown
Sable
Chocolate
Champagne
Blue
Blue
Lilac
Platinum
Cream
Red
Brown Tortie
Chocolate Tortie
Blue Torties
Lilac Tortie
