Where are European Burmese cats from?

European Burmese cats originate in England. In 1930, Dr. Joseph Thompson brought a cat from Burma (now Myanmar) to San Francisco, who reminded him of all the cats he was so fond of while working in Tibet. He enlisted the help of geneticists and breeders to develop this breed by crossing the Burmese cat with a Siamese cat, creating the American Burmese. In 1949, a pair of American Burmese cats were imported to England, and breeding programs began in earnest across the pond to create the European Burmese.