The Buddha and the Foundations of Buddhism

Siddhartha Gautama, who would become known as the Buddha, "the Awakened One," is traditionally held to have been born a prince of the Shakya clan in Lumbini, in present-day Nepal, and to have lived roughly between the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, though the exact dates remain a matter of ongoing scholarly debate. According to traditional accounts, most fully elaborated in later biographical texts such as the Buddhacarita and the Nidanakatha, Siddhartha was raised in considerable comfort and shielded from suffering until, in his late twenties, a series of encounters known as the "Four Sights" — an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic — confronted him with the reality of suffering (dukkha) and impermanence, prompting him to renounce his household life, a departure known as the "Great Renunciation." After several years pursuing severe ascetic practices without success, he adopted what he called the "Middle Way," and, seated beneath a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya, in present-day Bihar, attained enlightenment, or bodhi, becoming the Buddha. He subsequently delivered his first sermon at Sarnath, near Varanasi, to five former ascetic companions, an event traditionally known as "turning the wheel of dharma" (dharmachakra pravartana), and spent the remaining decades of his life teaching across the Gangetic plain until his death, or parinirvana, at Kushinagar.