Siddhartha Gautam The Buddha's Impact Of Asian Culture

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Siddhartha Gautama: The Buddha’s Impact of Asian Culture
Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Gautama Buddha, or just simply the Buddha was born in what is now known as Nepal sometime between c. 563 BCE and c. 480 BCE into the caste system with his caste being the Kshatriya, the caste of royalty or the military elite. He was born to Śuddhodana, a head chief of the Shakya tribe, and Maya, a princess. Siddhartha’s father held a naming ceremony for a five day old Siddhartha where eight Brahmin priests predicted that Siddhartha would either be a great holy man or a great king. The prophecy was correct as Siddhartha Gautama has one of the largest impacts on Asian culture by creating the fourth most popular religion in the world that is still active …show more content…

Being a prince, he was one of the few people of his time who were able to receive an education consisting of the sciences, mathematics, art, and eventually at the behest of his father sports and archery. It has been written by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in Introduction to Buddhism that “He mastered all the traditional arts and sciences without needing any instruction. He knew sixty-four different languages, each with their own alphabet…” (Gyatso 4) he was seen as a genius and wise beyond his years once telling his father that he could “…count all the atoms in the world in the time it takes to draw a single breath.” (Gyatso 5) Siddhartha’s father, Śuddhodana, took great effort in blocking religion from Siddhartha and from seeing human suffering specifically those of the people Siddhartha was bound to rule …show more content…

Siddhartha was 29 years-old and even though he had everything he could want or need he knew that there was more to life than purely material objects. It was around this time of him being 29 years-old that he began leaving his palace and seeing how people outside truly lived. It is stated by Edward Conze in the translated Buddhist Scriptures “…he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic… he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.” (Conze 46) Siddhartha began living life as an ascetic secretly knowing his father would try to prevent him from doing so. He began begging for alms in the streets of Rajagaha secretly until the royal guards recognized him and the Rajagaha King offered Siddhartha his throne, but Siddhartha declined deciding instead to continue his search for

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