Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama (563 BCE - c., 483 BCE) was born into a royal family in Lumbini, now located in Nepal, in 563 BC. He was raised in luxury by an adoring father who sought to protect him from the sight and knowledge of evil. He married early and had a son while he was still a youth.

At age 29, according to legend, he rode forth from the palace in his chariot. By the roadside he saw an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse on a litter. Shocked by his first experience with old age, sickness, and death, the prince lost all joy in living. One night he left his sleeping wife and infant son and rode away into the forest. He denounced the world, and through all sorts of penances, even to the point of almost starving to death, he sought to gain insight into life's meanings. As he meditated in solitude under the Bo tree, which Buddhists call the tree of wisdom, he experienced a spiritual awakening, known as "the enlightenment."

Realizing that wealth and luxury did not guarantee happiness, he explored the different teachings religions and philosophies of the day, to find the key to human happiness. After six years of study and meditation he finally found 'the middle path' and was enlightened. After enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life wandering through India and teaching the principles of Buddhism — called the Dhamma, or Truth — until his death at the age of 80, in about 483 BC.