Shakyamuni Buddha

There have been countless Buddhas, but Shakyamuni (also Sakyamuni) is the only historical Buddha who lived on earth, was the primary source of its doctrines, and spread the teaching of Buddhism (the dharma). He was born Siddhartha Gautama 560 BCE in a miraculous birth to Queen Maya and King Suddhodanna the rulers of Kapilavastu and spent 29 years living in a palace as a prince. Realizing that material wealth was not the ultimate goal in life, he ventured outside the palace and became an ascetic mendicant monk trying to find enlightenment through complete deprivation of worldly goods. Realizing that a life of deprivation was futile, he followed a different course, the Middle Way, a path of moderation between self-indulgence and extreme asceticism. He then sat in meditation under Bodhi tree in Bodhi Gaya and vowed to not rise until he had found the Truth. At age 35 after resisting temptations of the demon Mara and his armies, Siddhartha reached his right hand to touch the earth, and the earth spoke: “I bear you witness!” Mara disappeared and as the morning star rose Siddhartha Gautama realized enlightenment and became Shakyamuni Buddha, meaning “the sage of the Shakyas,” and spent the next 45 years living as a monk teaching the Dharma throughout India and formed the world’s first Monastic Order known as the Sangha. Shakyamuni and did not wish his mages to be produced and worshipped, so early portrayals were aniconic – represented using symbols. Early images appeared around the 2nd century CE.