Founder of Buddhism, "the Awakened One"
Buddhist scriptures record that Siddhartha was born into the ruling Shakya clan at the foot of the Himalayas (in present-day Nepal); given every luxury in youth, at twenty-nine he saw the suffering of old age, sickness, and death, and left home to seek liberation. After six years of ascetic practice without result, he at last sat in meditation beneath the bodhi tree and realized the "Four Noble Truths" and the "Eightfold Path," becoming the "Buddha" (awakened one). For the next forty-five years he wandered and taught in northern India and founded a monastic order, entering nirvana at eighty in Kushinagar. He did not regard himself as a god but as "one who points out the way" — a key difference between Buddhism and most theistic traditions.
Buddhist tradition records that as a prince, Siddhartha was deliberately kept by his father from the suffering of the world. On an outing from the palace he encountered in turn an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic, and so came to see that old age, sickness, and death are inescapable, kindling the wish to leave home and seek liberation — known as the "Four Sights."
After six years of asceticism without liberation, Siddhartha instead accepted milk-rice from a cowherd girl to recover his strength, and sat beneath a tree at Bodh Gaya, vowing "I will not rise from this seat until I attain awakening." Tradition holds that through that night he was unmoved by the temptations and threats of Mara, and at dawn realized the Four Noble Truths, becoming the Buddha. The tree came to be called the "bodhi tree."
After his awakening the Buddha went to Deer Park and preached the "Four Noble Truths" (suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path) and the "Middle Way" to the five companions who had practiced asceticism with him — the first teaching in Buddhist history, called the "First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma." All five awakened and became the earliest members of the monastic order.
Southern Theravada Buddhism (prevalent in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar) and Northern Mahayana Buddhism (prevalent in China, Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Tibetan Buddhism) differ in how they place the Buddha: Theravada stresses the Buddha as a historical figure’s awakening and teaching; Mahayana developed on this basis a cosmology of "Buddhas in all directions and all three times," giving rise to belief systems around other Buddhas such as Amitabha.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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