BuddhaBhagavāTathāgataSiddhatthaGotamaSugataSatthā

The Awakened one, the founder and teacher of the Buddha-dhamma. His personal name was Siddhattha Gotama, and he was a Khattiya of the Sakiyan clan. He was born in Lumbini in around 500 BCE. He was raised in Kapilavatthu, where he had a wife and child, but left home in search of the Deathless at the age of 29. After six years of fruitless effort he realized Awakening at the age of 35 at Bodhgaya, at Uruvelā on the banks of the Nerañjarā. After an initial hesitation he decided to teach the Dhamma he had found, and he did so for the next 45 years, until he passed away at the age of eighty at Kusinārā.

A Buddha is not a deity, but a person who has reached the pinnacle of wisdom and freedom. From time to time Buddha’s appear in the world, but Sddhattha is the only historical Buddha.