The document summarizes key events in the life of the Buddha. It describes that he was born in Lumbini, Nepal to a leading family as Siddhartha. He later left home to seek spiritual answers and practiced meditation and asceticism. After collapsing from extreme asceticism, he sat under a bodhi tree and attained enlightenment. He then taught his insights to others, establishing Buddhism. The Buddha died at age 80 in Kushinagar and his remains were divided and enshrined in stupas.

2. 563BC
Conception
 The Buddha’s mother was the wife of a leading figure
in a small state known by its tribal name, Śākya.
 It was a kind of oligarchic republic that was situated on
the border of modern day India and Nepal. According
to Buddhist tradition, she dreamt that an auspicious
white elephant entered her womb

4. Buddha's words on loving
kindness
“Just as a mum cares for her
only child all her life, radiate
kindness through the world
with boundless heart,
unconfined, without anger or
adversary.”

5. 563BC
Birth: Lumbinī, Nepal
 The Buddha emerged from his mother’s side, as she
stood leaning against a tree, in a painless and pure
birth.
 He took seven steps and lotus flowers sprang up in his
footsteps. A wise man predicted that this child would
be either a great secular ruler or a great religious
leader. He was named Siddhārtha (or
Sarvārthasiddha), meaning ‘a man who achieves his
goals’. His mother died shortly after his birth and he
was brought up by his maternal aunt Mahāprajāpati.

7. 548BC
Marriage: Kapilavastu, Śākya
 Siddhārtha was married at 15 – the normal age of
consent – to a younger bride called Yaśodharā.
 She conceived in due course and gave birth to a boy,
who was called Rāhula. Siddhārtha is understood to
have been a well educated young man, trained in
martial arts and to have enjoyed his privileged life in
ancient Kapilavastu, the capital city.

9. Prior to 534BC
Existential crisis: Kapilavastu
 Siddhartha’s father Śuddhodana wanted his son to
become the political ruler predicted at his birth.
 So he conspired to protect his son from any religious
aspirations by giving him a life of pleasure and
privilege, and by preventing him from seeing the
harsher sides of reality. His plan eventually failed.
Siddhartha managed to explore his society and was
profoundly disturbed by finding out about old age,
sickness and death. He was also fascinated by the sight
of religious people seeking answers to life’s big
questions.

11. 534BC
Leaving home: To Rājagriha
 Eventually the tensions between cosy and familiar home
life and the challenge of suffering and death became too
much.
 Siddhartha left home on his own, as tradition has it
slipping away in the dead of night, leaving his family in
despair. In a dramatic moment, deep in the wilderness, he
abandoned his horse and cropped his hair. He became a
religious wanderer, and sought out the company of others
doing the same. He travelled south into the neighbouring
kingdom of Magadha (modern Bihar) where he was
spotted by the young king Bimbisāra as he begged on the
streets in the capital city Rājagriha.

12. Indian depiction of the Buddha's great departure from
Kapilavastu, on his horse Kanthaka, whose hooves are held off the
ground by the gods.

13. 533BC
Meditation: Magadha
 Siddhārtha is first described as training with a succession
of meditation teachers, including the masters Ālāra
Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta.
 These people taught him meditation methods by which his
mind could be calmed and enter more and more refined
states of 'one-pointed' serenity, in which awareness of the
outside world recedes. Although these experiences are
powerful and satisfying in themselves, they do not last.
Once his meditation was finished, he returned to being as
before. Siddhārtha wanted a permanent solution and,
despite being recognised as fully competent by his
teachers, left them behind.

15. 532–528BC
Asceticism: Uruvelā
 Siddhartha relocated to a spot near this pleasant village in
the far west of Magadha, where he took up a completely
different course of action.
 Another approach adopted in his day was asceticism – the
testing of one’s physical body by arduous tasks. These
included: exposure to the heat of the sun without
protection; avoiding a single physical posture, such as lying
or sitting down; holding one’s breath; or fasting by
reducing food intake progressively until surviving on tiny
amounts of food. The idea was that one could wear down
the physical influence of one’s being and release the soul,
an insubstantial essence in each individual.

17. 528BC
Collapse: Varanasi
 Siddhārtha took up this type of practice
wholeheartedly and eventually settled with a group of
five others near Varanasi.
 He became highly proficient, but after some years of
trying a variety of practices, Siddhārtha collapsed. He
decided that all he was doing was risking death
without any solution to the problems of suffering and
death. He accepted a small meal of milk rice from a
young woman called Sujātā, offered in thanks for
having just given birth to a much desired son.

19. 528BC
Awakening: Bodh Gayā
 Siddhārtha’s companions rejected him when he gave up
asceticism. As he recovered strength, he moved near the
river Nerañjarā and settled under a tree.
 He sought a way to understand the human situation that
would be liberating. He combined restraint with the
withdrawal from the senses he had learnt in meditation.
Remembering a moment of quiet illumination from his
childhood, he entered a state of mind in which he could
recall his past lives and understand what kept him and
others tied to the cycle of rebirth. He attained ‘awakening’
or bodhi. This was the core experience by which he came to
be called buddha, which means ‘awakened’.

20. The Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya is said to mark the spot where the Buddha achieved
enlightenment. It is one of the most sacred sites of Buddhism.

21. 528BC
Teaching: Sārnāth, Varanasi
 The exact time varies according to source, but several
weeks after his awakening, the Buddha decided to
communicate his experience to other people.
 He was not originally optimistic about this, but was
persuaded that someone might understand. For want of
anyone better to speak to, he walked to Sārnāth, not far
from Varanasi, to find his former ascetic companions. He
took some care to explain his insights to them. The
teaching he gave is summarised in a text called the
Dharma-cakra-pravartana Sutra – the discourse describing
the first turning of the wheel of the teaching. The five
ascetics became his first five disciples.

22. The 5th Century Dhamekh Stupa at Sarnath which is said to mark
the spot in the deer park where the Buddha gave his first sermon.

23. 483BC
Death: Kuśinagara, Malla
 he Buddha taught continuously in the remaining 45 years
of his life. He travelled around north-east India, teaching
in a variety of dialects.
 In his 80th year his life ended near a small town called
Kuśinagara, in Malla (Uttar Pradesh). Falling ill, possibly
from food poisoning, he checked with his monastic
followers whether they had any questions to ask before he
died. They had none. He encouraged them with his final
words: “Things that arise from causes will also decay. Press
on with due care.” Amidst an unseasonal fall of forest
flowers, he lay on his right side, entered a profound
meditative state and passed away.

24. Nepalese painting of the death of the Buddha

25. 483BC
Funeral and Relics
 The Buddha’s body was carried from its forest grove in
through the north gate of Kuśinagara, and from there to a
well known funerary monument.
 The Buddha had left instructions for his disposal. His body
was to be wrapped in linen and cotton, encased in an iron
vessel and burnt on a pyre. The surviving pieces of burnt
bone were divided between representatives from eight
states. The bowl itself was given to Droṇa, who had divided
the relics, and a group of latecomers were given the ashes
from the pyre. Each group built a funerary monument over
their relic, and these became the 10 places where the
Buddha could be worshipped.

26. Temple of tTooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka which is said toDetail from
the he house the tooth of the Buddha.

27.  Prepared by:
Michelle Bayot Pascua