The Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, was the founder of Buddhism. He was born in Lumbini, Nepal, in 563 BCE, into a wealthy family of the Kshatriya caste. According to legend, at his birth, wise men predicted that he would become either a great ruler or a great spiritual teacher.
Siddhartha’s father, King Suddhodana, sheltered him from the harsh realities of life, but as a young man, Siddhartha became curious about the world outside his palace walls. He left his home and encountered old age, sickness, and death for the first time, which deeply affected him.
Determined to find a way to end human suffering, Siddhartha became a wandering ascetic, seeking enlightenment. He practiced intense meditation and self-denial for six years before realizing that these extreme practices did not lead to enlightenment. He then adopted a Middle Way, a path between indulgence and self-mortification, and meditated under a Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India.
After 49 days of meditation, Siddhartha achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha, meaning “the awakened one.” He spent the rest of his life teaching the Dharma, his teachings on the path to enlightenment, to his followers. He traveled throughout northern India, attracting a large following and establishing a community of monks and nuns. The Buddha’s teachings emphasized the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which provide a framework for ethical conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom.
The Buddha died in Kushinagar, India, at the age of 80. His followers preserved his teachings in the Tripitaka, a collection of Buddhist scriptures, and spread Buddhism throughout Asia and eventually the world.
Today, Buddhism is one of the major world religions, with over 500 million followers.
