Gautama Buddha

Long ago, a prince named Siddhartha lived inside the tall walls of a beautiful palace. His family kept every sad thing out of his sight.

But one day he went outside and saw an old man, a sick man and a sorrowful funeral. He wanted to understand why people suffer.

So he quietly left the palace, gave away his rich clothes, and walked for years searching for answers. Under a peepal tree in Bodh Gaya, he sat very still and became awakened — that is what 'Buddha' means.

For the rest of his life he travelled and taught people to be kind, to be truthful, and to walk what he called the Middle Way.

Siddhartha Gautama was born around 563 BCE in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, into a small royal family. He left palace life in his late twenties to find out why living beings suffer.

After years of wandering and meditation, he had a great insight under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, in Bihar, and became known as the Buddha, or 'Awakened One'.

At Sarnath, near Varanasi, he gave his first talk and taught the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path — a way of life based on kindness, honesty, calm thinking and not going to extremes. For over forty years he walked through northern India teaching all kinds of people, rich and poor.

After he died around 483 BCE, his followers carried his teachings across Asia, and Buddhism grew into one of the world's great spiritual traditions.