The birth of a tradition

A prince who asked
the hardest questions

ເຈົ້າຊາຍຜູ້ຖາມຄຳຖາມທີ່ຍາກທີ່ສຸດ

Around 563 BCE, in a kingdom called Lumbini — in what is now southern Nepal — a boy named Siddhartha Gautama was born into the royal Shakya clan. His father, King Suddhodana, was determined that his son would become a great king. Seers had prophesied that the child would either rule the world or, if he witnessed suffering, renounce the throne and become a great spiritual teacher.

His father chose to shield him. Siddhartha grew up surrounded by luxury — palaces, servants, entertainment, comfort — never permitted to see old age, sickness, or death. He was given every reason to stay. He married a princess named Yasodharā and they had a son, Rāhula. By every worldly measure, his life was perfect.

The Four Sights

ສິ່ງທີ່ເຫັນສີ່ຢ່າງ

But one day, at the age of 29, Siddhartha left the palace grounds — and the sheltered life his father had constructed collapsed in four encounters that would change history.

The Great Renunciation

ການສະລະທັງໝົດ

That night, Siddhartha made his decision. He left the palace, left his sleeping wife and newborn son, cut his hair, exchanged his royal robes for simple cloth, and walked out into the forest to seek the answer to a question that had consumed him: why is there suffering, and is there a way out?

For six years he sought answers. He studied under two great meditation masters of his day and quickly mastered everything they could teach. Still unsatisfied, he joined a group of five ascetics who practiced extreme self-denial — believing that by torturing the body, the spirit could be freed. Siddhartha fasted so severely that his ribs could be counted through his skin and he nearly died. But he found no liberation — only weakness.

The Middle Way and Enlightenment

ທາງສາຍກາງ ແລະ ການຕຣັດຮູ້

Siddhartha accepted a bowl of rice porridge from a village woman named Sujata — nourishing his weakened body. The five ascetics, disgusted by what they saw as weakness, abandoned him. Alone, Siddhartha sat beneath a fig tree — later called the Bodhi tree (ຕົ້ນໂພ) — in Bodh Gaya, India, and vowed not to rise until he had found the answer he sought.

According to tradition, on a full moon night — the night of Vesak — after hours of deep meditation, Siddhartha experienced complete awakening. He saw the nature of suffering, its arising, its cessation, and the path to its end. He saw the cycle of rebirth across countless lifetimes. He understood the deep law of cause and effect. He became the Buddha — the Awakened One.

He was 35 years old.

45 Years of Teaching

45 ປີຂອງການສິດສອນ

For the next 45 years, the Buddha walked across northern India teaching what he had discovered. His very first teaching — the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dhamma — was delivered to his five former companions in the deer park at Isipatana (modern Sarnath, near Varanasi). In that first sermon he taught the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

His teachings attracted kings and beggars, men and women, the learned and the illiterate. He founded the Sangha — the community of monks, nuns, and lay practitioners — which has sustained the Buddhist tradition to the present day. He passed away at the age of 80 at Kushinagar, entering what is called Parinibbāna (ປາລິນິພພານ) — the final liberation beyond rebirth.