Founder of Buddhism, also known as Gautama, Sakyamuni. Born in 565 BC. he was a son of the Gautama family in the Sakya clan, India. His father was King of Suddhodhana of Kapilavastu and his mother’s name was Maya. He grew up amidst palatial luxuries, and his father prevented him from being exposed to the miseries of life. Deeply disturbed by the reality of old age, sickness and death, Sakyamuni tried to seek the answer to the misery of existence and a way of release from the intolerable cycle of endless rebirths to which all living things are subject. One day at Bodhagaya he was seated under a pipal tree (an Indian fig tree or bodhi tree) and it is believed that he was enlightened. He then propagated Buddhist doctrines for 45 years in central India and was highly esteemed to be the Buddha (the Awakened). He died at the age of 80 under a pipal tree.
