[ Hirimaloka ] Life of the Buddha ( 붓다 의 생애 ) Siddhartha Gautama ca . 563 - ca . 483 BCSiddhartha Gautama lived in the present - day border area between India and Nepal in the 6 th century before Christ ; his exact birth date is unknown . Because the life of the historical Buddha is inseparable from legend , the following text is not meant to be a historically exact biography , but a short life story based on what has been passed down by generations . 563 BC - BirthSiddhartha Gautama is born in Lumbini , near the Nepalese - Indian border to his father , King Suddhodana , ruler of the Sakya tribe , and his mother , Queen Mayadevi . The father gives his son the name of Siddhartha ( = the one who obtains success and prosperity ) , his second name is Gautama ( = name of the clan ) . Seers predict that Siddhartha will either become a Universal Monarch or a Buddha . Asita , the wisest of the seers , is sure that he will become a Buddha ( = one who has supreme knowledge ) . His mother dies seven days after the birth . 563 - 547 BCSiddhartha spends his childhood in the palace of his father at Kapilavastu , Southern Nepal , where he is raised by his aunt Mahaprajapati until the age of seven . In his early childhood , during a ploughing ceremony , Siddhartha makes his first unprecedented spiritual experience , where in the course of meditation he develops the first jhana ( = meditative absorption ) through concentration . As a young boy he learns the skills of a warrior , including the technical and athletic skills of man - to - man fight . Siddhartha is trained in spiritual disciplines and becomes proficient in the art of archery . 547 BCAt the early age of sixteen , he marries his beautiful cousin Princess Yasodhara , who is of equal age . 547 - 533 BCThe young prince spends thirteen more years together with his wife in the royal court of his father . Three palaces are built for him , one for the cold season , one for the hot season , and one for the rainy season . Siddhartha enjoys the lavish court life while his father is trying to screen him from all troubles and worries . A son is born while Siddhartha is in his late twenties . 533 BC - The Four SightsDespite of the amenities of life , Siddhartha is not satisfied with the mere enjoyment of fleeting pleasures due to his inquiring and contemplative nature . One day , he leaves the palace for an excursion and there he encounters what so far has been purposely veiled from him : He sees a decrepit old man , a diseased person , a corpse being cremated , and a sadhu ( = holy man , hermit ) . Siddhartha realises that there is old age , sickness , and death , and that people ultimately have little control over their lives . The fourth sight provides the inspiration that leads to a dramatic change in his life . 533 BC - The RenunciationIn the night of his 29 th birthday , Siddhartha gives up his life as a prince and secretly leaves the court while everyone is asleep . He travels far and crosses the river Anoma , where he shaves his hair and hands over his princely garments to his groom Channa , with instructions to return them to the palace . 533 - 528 BCThe Bodhisattva ( = future Buddha ) , who once lived in luxury , becomes a penniless and homeless wanderer . He leads a life of self - mortification and spiritual study , becomes first a disciple of several then famous Brahman teachers , and later attracts his own disciples . After a long and exhausting period of searching and self - mortification , he finally becomes disillusioned with the Indian caste system , Hindu asceticism , and the religious doctrines of his time . He gives up the ascetic life and loses all of his disciples as a result . Nevertheless , he continues his search for truth through the practice of meditation . April / May 528 BC - EnlightenmentWhile meditating under a Bodhi tree in Bodh - Gaya , south of Gaya in the state of Bihar , India , the Bodhisattva experiences the Great Enlightenment , which reveals to him the way of salvation from suffering . He spends seven weeks meditating in the vicinity of the site of the Bodhi tree and attains the status of a fully realised Buddha at the age of 35 . June / July 528 BC - First SermonBuddha finds his former five disciples in Benares . In his first sermon he teaches them what will become the gist of Buddhism . Upon hearing it , one of the disciples instantly attains the status of an arhat ( = one with enlightened wisdom ) . This event marks the beginning of the Buddhist teaching and his disciples become the first five members of the sangha ( = Buddhist order ) . 528 - 527 BCDuring a short period of time , Buddha establishes a great reputation in western Hindustan by converting thousands of people to the dhamma ( = the Buddhist teaching ) . People hear the dhamma delivered either by himself , or by the monks of his order . During this time he delivers the fire sermon . March 527 BCThe Buddha briefly returns to the palace of his father to convert the royal family and ordains many of the Sakya tribe . 523 BCFour years later Siddhartha ' s father , King Suddhodana , dies . Buddha returns to the palace and Mahaprajapati , where Buddha ' s aunt - upon meeting Buddha - becomes the first woman to ordain , despite of the protest of some contemporaries . From this moment on women were admitted to the sangha . According to Indian tradition , however , they were separated and under the authority of male monks . 523 - 483 BCIn the 45 years following his enlightenment , Buddha travels around Northern India to teach the tenets of Buddhism . He is extremely successful and attracts first thousands , then ten thousands , and later hundred thousands of people from all walks of life , who voluntarily decide to follow his teachings , the dhamma . During the monsoon , when travelling becomes difficult due to the weather , Buddha and his close followers interrupt their journey . During these month , monks , as well as laypeople , receive the teachings at a site selected for retreat . One such site is Sravasti in Nepal , which has become very famous since then . Buddha ' s success does not only attract admirers , but also provokes envy and ill will . Several attempts are made on his life , but all of them fail . Although he is being criticised and defamed , this does not affect the popularity of his teaching . 483 BC - Buddha passes into NirvanaHaving achieved the goal of spreading the teaching to the greatest number of people , Buddha dies at the age of eighty years , as a result of food poisoning . He dies in a forest near Kusinagara , Nepal , in the company of his followers reclining on a bed where he speaks his last words : " All compounded things are ephemeral ; work diligently on your salvation . " With these words on his lips , he passes into the state of Nirvana . Pasted from http : / / www . thebigview . com / buddhism / buddhasresume . html