Contents
The Buddha
The teachings that became the foundation of Buddhism.
Middle Way · Four Noble Truths
- Born
- Unknown
- Birthplace
- Lumbini
- Died
- Unknown
More people
The Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama was a religious teacher in ancient northern India. His life is known through traditions recorded after his death, and historians differ over his exact dates.
Early life
Traditional origins
Buddhist accounts place his birth at Lumbini in the Shakya community. Stories of a protected princely childhood belong to the religious biographical tradition.
Career
- 6th–5th century BCE
Renunciation
Tradition describes his departure from household life to seek liberation.
- Traditional chronology
Awakening
Buddhist accounts locate his awakening at Bodh Gaya.
- Later life
Teaching community
Taught across the Ganges plain and established a monastic community.
Contributions
Middle Way
Rejected both indulgence and extreme asceticism as routes to liberation.
Four Noble Truths
Connected suffering, its causes, its cessation and a path of practice.
Beyond work
Transmission
His followers preserved teachings orally before compiling collections of discourses and monastic rules. Later traditions developed different accounts of his life and significance.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and career ↗Biographical references ↗Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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Photo: Later artistic depiction, not a contemporary likeness; Tevaprapas Makklay. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.