In the year 623 B.C., a noble prince destined to be the greatest religious teacher of the world was born in the Lumbini Park at Kapilavatthu, on the Indian borders of present Nepal. His father was King Suddhodana of the aristocratic Sakya clan and his mother was Queen Maha Maya, but she died seven days after his birth. Her younger sister, who was also married to the King, adopted the child. The newborn prince was named Siddhattha
At the early age of sixteen, he married Princess Yasodhara. For nearly thirteen years, he led a luxurious life and ignored the life outside of the palace gates. He had everithing that he wanted and never passes through any trial.
One day he decided to see the world outside. In the city he have seen things, that he have seen never before: an old man, a diseased person, a corpse and a hermit. The first too people and friends of the dead man where unhappy and tried a lot of tribulations. Only the hermit was calm and he was looking happy, even through he was not very young and his body was not the same body as he had as a young man. That day Siddhattha decided to find some way, how to get rid of tribulations.
He left the palace, took on a yellow garb of an ascetic went to the Magadha country and practiced asceticism in the forest After six years in the forest he gave up the practice of asceticism. He bathed in the river and accepted a bowl of food from the hand of Sujata, a maid who lived in the neighboring village. The five companions who had lived with the Prince for the six years of his ascetic practices looked on with amazement that he could receive food from the hand of a maiden; they thought him he’s degraded and left him. The Prince was left alone. He was still feeble but at the risk of his life he tried a final meditation, saying to himself, "Blood may become exhausted, flesh may decay, bones may fall apart, but I will never leave this place until I find the way to enlightenment."
His mind was desperate, was filled with confusing thoughts. But carefully and patiently he get rid of all shadows and confusing things in it and when the morning star appeared in the eastern sky, the struggle was over and the Prince's mind was clear. He had found the path to enlightenment at last. It was December the 8th, when he was thirty-five years of age that the Prince became Buddha.
He went first to the place where the five ascetics lived.