History of the Siamese

Although there have been many theories about the origin of the Siamese, it is now quite certain that it was a well loved variety in the ancient Siamese city of Ayutthaya.

Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 and was Siam's capital city until it was utterly destroyed after a lengthy siege by the Burmese in 1767. This destruction of art treasures, buildings, historical records makes it difficult nowadays to truly visualize the splendour of Ayutthaya in its glory days.

For more history on Ayuttaya visit
http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/ayutthaya.html

However, in the National Library, in the present day capital of Bangkok, there are manuscripts from Ayutthaya that provide a record of native cats, describing them as having black tails, feet and ears with a white body and blue eyes which reflect a reddish glow at night because it is part albino.

The Siamese Cats eyes are a brilliant sapphire blue. The original cats in Siam lived in temples where they were closely guarded to keep the breed pure. So highly were they regarded that there ownership is said to have been restricted to members of the Royal family. Only if a man was promoted to a knight or nobleman could he possess that cat with, as they believed, "special powers."

These beautiful cats first appeared in Australia in the 1890's, and today is one of the most popular pedigree breeds.

Myths and Legends

One of the stories which accounts for the cross-eyed or kink tailed Siamese recounts a time in Siam when all of the men went off to defend their kingdom, leaving only a male and female Siamese to guard the golden goblet, once used by Buddha, in the sacred temple.

The male Siamese, being a tom cat and having already impregnated the female, became restless and went off seeking other pretty females. The faithful female became so concerned over the vastness of her responsibility to guard the goblet that she not only stared at it with concentrated eyes but also wrapped her long and lovely tail around it in case she should have a cat nap. As time passed and her kittening time came closer, she increased her vigilance, hoping that some of the monks would return. At last she could wait no longer- sixty eight days had passed, probably the longest gestation for any feline breed, and her lovely babies were born - all with crossed eyes as hers had become from watching the goblet, and all with kink tails as hers had become from being wrapped about the goblet.

Those kink tails and crossed eyes do show up occasionally to this day, reinforcing this legend and other similar ones. The kink tails certainly do no harm to the health of the cat.

Another legend referring to the kinked tail was said to have originated when the Royal princesses were taking a bath. The cats allowed the princesses to place their valuable bracelets and rings on the end of their tails for safe keeping. To prevent these from falling off, the temples cats knotted their tails and after a while a permanent kink developed especially for this purpose.

The eye colour of the Siamese, unknown to the everyday cat is a distinct feature of the Siamese breed. The classic blue eyes are said to have been the result of a gift from God.

The legend states that the Barbarians threatened to destroy the temple altar in ancient Siam, and the cats defended strongly and repelled the savage invaders. In gratitude to the prayers of the devout priests, Siamese cats were rewarded by the everlasting gift of their exquisite blue eyes.

 

Above: Ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand after the Burmese invasion in 1767
photo courtesy: P Young

Above: The eighth cat from an old ancient thai manuscript (note the red eyes) called WI-CHI-AN-MAAD

Above: Ancient Thai Cat drawing from Martin Clutterbucks book, "The Legend of Siamese Cats"

Above: Sketch of a Siamese Cat with their legendary kinked tail