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The term Buddha was a title meaning "the awakened one", or "the one who knows",
The story goes when he was 7 days old his mother died, an aunty bought him up (his fathers second wife) this was about
563BC, in Lumbini, in Northern India near the present border of Nepal. His real name was Siddhartha Gautama he was a prince.
Its said that a holy man announced that he would become, a great political leader or a great religious leader, His father the king wanted him to follow in his footsteps.
Up until his early twenties he was dressed in fine silks, was not to know sadness, death, sickness, or anything of the out
side world, he was well schooled in athletic skills, spiritual disciplines of the day. Hinduism was the orthodox religion.
He was married at sixteen to Yasodhara who soon had a son who was named Rahula. At this point he had every thing he could
passable have in life, but despite all this affluence, he became discontent.
One day he went out of the palace up till then the king had always first ordered that all those with any disability be hidden
from view, one day, Siddhartha saw an old man, bent and trembling, and discovered old age. On the second encounter, he saw
a sick man suffering from disease, and on the third journey, he witnessed a funeral procession and a corpse. Finally, on the fourth journey, he met a wandering monk who had an inner tranquility despite living an austere life, suggesting to Siddhartha that he had come to terms with old age, sickness and death.
On his 29th Birthday the young prince renounced his regal life, left his sleeping family, and set out with a servant, when they were a long way away he stopped, cut of his hair and put on old clothes and sent the servant back with the horses. Now he was all on his own. This decision was not an easy one for Gautama, and in making this choice; he took it upon himself to find out about the origin of suffering and how to overcome it.
He did this for his own understanding and for all people.
He set out as a wondering monk and eats when food was offered to him. He studied under well know teachers of the day in his
spiritual quest he learnt of deep meditation and followed the yogic practices, but in the end discovered that he reached a
point where the teachers could offer him no more so he left with a few followers. It was widely accepted by the holy men of
the era, that the body and its desires were an obstacle to spiritual development and that these should be subdued they stayed
with him for six years and then went there own way. He was on his own again.
He sat himself under a Bodhi tree at a place called Bodh Gaya. and determined not to move until he had found the answers he
sought. His meditation was deep, and, on the night of the full moon in May, complete Enlightenment came to him. His mind became
calm and clear and he understood the cycle of birth, death and the wheel of life. He understood his true nature and that of
all living beings. This was the end of his spiritual journey, and at that moment he became "the Buddha".
The Buddha continued to sit under the Bodhi tree for some time, enjoying the supreme experience and looking at the future.
At first, he doubted whether others could grasp what he now knew, but then he decided he would dedicate the rest of his life
to teaching what he had discovered. He chose the path of greatest compassion for all his fellow men and women, now thirty-five
years old. For the next forty-five years, until his death at about eighty years of age, he pursued his life's mission.
The Buddha accepted many men as followers he founded an order of monks and for nine months each year, walked the roads of India,
to towns, villages and cities, teaching to whoever would listen, for the remaining three months of every year, which could
of been the wet season, he retreated from public life with his monks.
He would teach beggars and kings it didn’t matter to him, men women and children came to listen to him, many of his own
family followed him, he set up many monastery’s for monks to stay, he became the best known and loved of all the spiritual teachers
in India
The Silk Road and The Spread
The Silk Road began near Iran and India, went south of the Caspian Sea, and then took one of two routes, along the borders of the Taklamakan desert. The two routes joined in North Western China. This root was always well used until the 15th century AD when sea trade dominated.
When this root was opened up from India to China, Buddhism spread with it, The route was treacherous and crossed huge deserts, as well as difficult mountain passes and steep valleys. A well-organized expedition relied on camels and good knowledge of local watering holes. Bandits were common and many traders perished on the journey. Monks traveled the trail teaching as they went, and monasteries were built close to watering holes over the years so people could rest at them, sick were taken in and looked after.
In Western countries, with the spread of Islam into the regions around the Silk Road, many of the temples were destroyed or left abandoned in the desert.
While the Mahayana school of Buddhism spread north, along the Silk Road to China, Buddhism spread into Korea in the fourth century AD and soon after into Japan. Tibet was one of the last countries to accept the Buddhist message. While it was introduced there in about 609AD, it was not widely accepted until the 11th century AD. From India, Buddhism first went to Bengal and then Sri Lanka early in the third Century BC. Sri Lanka became strongly Buddhist, It was here that many of the early teachings were finally written down, from Sri Lanka, monks went to Burma in the 5th Century but it was not until the 12th Century AD that Buddhism became widely established. Thailand took on Buddhism in the 13th Century AD, with Laos and Cambodia also taking on the teaching soon after, all following the Theravada school. At the
same time, by the 15th Century, Buddhism had virtually disappeared from India, and has never been a major influence there ever since, although there have been some revival in particular areas
 
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