When did Buddhism begin?

Buddhism traces its origin to a specific moment: the enlightenment (bodhi) of Siddhartha Gautama under a bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, in modern-day Bihar, India. Traditional dating places this event around 528 BCE, though some scholars argue for later dates. The historical Buddha was born around 563 BCE (again, dates are debated) into the Shakya clan, a warrior-noble lineage in what is now southern Nepal.

Siddhartha's early life, according to Buddhist tradition, was one of sheltered luxury. His father, a Shakya chieftain, attempted to shield him from the suffering of the world. But encounters with old age, sickness, death, and a wandering ascetic prompted him to renounce his privileged life at age twenty-nine and seek the cause of human suffering.

For six years, Siddhartha practiced severe asceticism and studied with various teachers without finding satisfaction. Finally, rejecting both luxury and self-mortification, he sat in meditation under a bodhi tree and achieved enlightenment — a profound understanding of the nature of suffering and the path to its cessation. He was thereafter known as the Buddha, 'the Awakened One.'

The Buddha's first sermon, delivered at Deer Park in Sarnath near Varanasi, set out the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path — the core teachings that would define the religion. For the remaining forty-five years of his life, he traveled across northern India, teaching and establishing a community (sangha) of monks and nuns.

Buddhism remained primarily an Indian phenomenon for its first two centuries. The major turning point came with Emperor Ashoka's patronage in the 3rd century BCE, which sent Buddhist missionaries beyond India and began the religion's transformation into one of the world's great faiths. Today, Buddhism has an estimated 500 million followers worldwide.