Buddha(vers 563 — vers 483 av. J.-C.)

Founding teaching delivered during the first sermon at Sarnath: suffering exists, it has a cause (desire), it can cease, and there is a path to achieve that cessation. These four truths form the heart of all Buddhism.

A practical path in eight stages — right understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration — to liberate oneself from suffering. This ethical and meditative program remains at the core of all Buddhist traditions.

Creation of the first community of monks (bhikkhus), then nuns (bhikkhunis), with precise rules of conduct (Vinaya). The Sangha becomes one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism alongside the Buddha and the Dharma.

A collection of 423 verses attributed to the Buddha, organized into 26 thematic chapters on ethics, meditation, and wisdom. It is the most widely read Buddhist text in the world and an accessible entry point to the Buddha's teaching.

A vast collection of several thousand discourses attributed to the Buddha, organized into five 'Nikayas'. Together with the Vinaya Pitaka and the Abhidhamma Pitaka, it forms the Pali Canon, the textual foundation of Theravada Buddhism.

The doctrine according to which all things are in perpetual change and nothing is permanent, including the self. This revolutionary concept has profoundly influenced philosophy and psychology across the centuries in Asia and, more recently, in the West.

"This, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering."

"I teach one thing and one thing only: suffering and the cessation of suffering. Just as the ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, my teaching has but one taste, the taste of liberation."

"King Priyadarshi, beloved of the gods, has honored all religious sects [...] and the Buddha Shakyamuni is venerated as the great sage who showed the path of the Dhamma."

"Then the Bodhisattva, seated beneath the Bodhi Tree, motionless as a mountain, withstood the assaults of Mara and, at the rising of the morning star, attained perfect and complete enlightenment."

"King Priyadarshi, beloved of the gods, when he had reigned twenty years, came in person and paid homage to this place because it is here that the Buddha Shakyamuni was born."

Birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, attested by the Ashoka pillar erected around 249 BCE. Today a UNESCO World Heritage Site and major pilgrimage destination for world Buddhism.

Site of the Buddha's Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. The Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO-listed site, marks this most sacred place in Buddhism; pilgrims from around the world come here to meditate.

The Deer Park where the Buddha delivered his first sermon after the Enlightenment, teaching the Four Noble Truths to the five ascetics. The ruins of the Ashoka stupa and the archaeological museum attest to the site's historical importance.

Site of the Buddha's Parinirvana (death), around 483 BCE. The Mahaparinirvana Temple houses a 6-metre reclining Buddha statue, representing his passage into final nirvana.

Capital of the kingdom of Magadha where the Buddha taught for many years and where the First Buddhist Council was held after his death. The surrounding hills contain caves used for meditation by the Buddha and his disciples.

Great Hindu holy city on the banks of the Ganges, near Sarnath. The Buddha stayed there and the region was at the heart of his itinerant ministry for several decades across the Gangetic plain.