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MONASTERY CATS OF MYANMAR LEAP GRACEFULLY INTO THE LIMELIGHT

INLE LAKE, Myanmar -- On approaching the Phe Chaung monastery of this remote lake in central Myanmar, historically known as Burma, one feels an otherworldly calm.

The Buddhist monastery itself, built of teak and filled with golden Buddhas, seems to float above this exquisite lake and this troubled country. Like all the small fisherman houses, it is built on piles and surrounded by "floating islands."

When you moor your boat, one of the outrigger canoes that ply these isolated waterways, and climb the teak stairs, you come upon a large open room -- and one of the more amazing scenes in Asia.

There you see the monastery's cats -- 24 of them now, of all colors. They are tiny, weighing only about 4 or 5 pounds each, and are lying in a stupor on the floor, sleeping away the heat of the tropical afternoon.

But when the monks gently wake them, the little cats of Phe Chaung come immediately and effortlessly to life. Without prodding, they assume a squatting position and then spring gracefully from the floor, leaping through small hoops, which the monks hold about three feet in the air. When they land, they pull themselves together and walk away with the aristocratic air of an elite athlete who has had a good day.

These are poor cats, in one of the poorest countries on Earth. They're so tiny because they haven't had much to eat all their lives. But there is a gallant quality to their "hoop-leaping," which is becoming renowned around the world. While soaring through the hoop, the cat's head is held high, like a racehorse leading in the home stretch.

The monks, all Burmese or tribal men who have taken time off from their regular lives to pursue a religious vocation, clearly love the cats. They cuddle the kittens, and feed and pet the older ones, such as Nicholas, who is 11. He has retired from jumping because his legs are tired.

They are also proud that their cats are becoming famous: In the temperate season, about 200 tourists come every day to see the animals, professional videos have been made of them, and a German cat food company has put their pictures on its boxes. Even the brutal hard-liners of Myanmar's military regime enthusiastically come here to see the cats.

There are different stories about how this "hoop-leaping" started. One is that, many years ago, the monks were praying, making circles with their arms, and the little cats who had taken sanctuary in the monastery began to leap through the circles. Another is that, as head monk Phaung Daw Oo explained to me, he began picking the cats up a few inches, then setting them down. He would do it three times and then, in part to get away, the cat would leap up. One day out of curiosity, he put a loop there, and the cats started leaping right through it.

"I can train any cat in three days," he told me, "no more." He has now named the cats after famous personalities, such as Tina Turner, Marilyn Monroe and Ricky Martin, and some of them come when called.

These multicolored cats are not either the famous Burmese or Birman breeds that are so popular in the West -- and that were supposedly the "sacred" and "temple" cats of historical Burma. Those are internationally known "breeds," but they are not noted for the exceptional talents displayed by these modest cats.

In fact, no one I talked to in Burma even knew about these Western breeds (although the monks thought they, and the sacred legends that surround them, might originally have come from the northwestern Kachin state of Burma). But people today celebrate Inle's "hoop-leaping cats" in the Shan State area, another historically rebellious tribal region, which has had its own substantial army.

Is there any larger lesson in the story of Inle Lake's and Myanmar's leaping cats? Probably not. But there is something splendidly incongruous about these poor, tiny cats, secluded in this monastery on a remote lake in this hilly region of an isolated country, leaping so freely and so grandly, while the world outside marvels.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2001

Answers

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2001

And here I felt fortunate when my kitty would bat a ball back and forth with me several times. The monk said the could teach a cat in three days. That's amazing to me. I'm lucky to keep kitties off the kitchen table, and they only do that when I'm around to scold them. (Don't feel sorry for them! Other than the linen closet and kitchen surfaces -- including the stove! -- they have free run of the house.)

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2001