The Life Of The Buddha

Gautama Buddha, the historical Buddha, lived in northeast India between 563 and 483 BC. As a bodhisattva he had passed through thousands of existences before coming to Earth for his ultimate transmigration. This last lifetime he began as a son of the King of the Sakya, Suddhodana, who ruled at Kapilavastu on the border of Nepal, and was born in a village called Lumbini into the warrior tribe called the Sakyas (from where he derived the title Sakyamuni, meaning "Sage of the Sakyas").