The founder of Buddhism and first Buddha of this age is Siddartha Gautama.   Like all the other founders of major religions, Siddartha had an extremely eventful life.  Born in the sixth century BCE in the city of Kapilavatsu in what is now modern day Nepal; he was the son of the Indian warrior-king, Suddhodana, and led a profligate and excessive life up until his early adulthood.  Legend tells us that his father feared that one day he might give up his life as a prince and take up the life of a religious wanderer, so Suddhodana ordered that Siddartha be left ignorant of the harsh realities of life.  His father arranged a marriage between him and his cousin, Yasodhara, when Siddartha was sixteen.  Inevitably, one day Siddartha ventured out into the world and encountered an old man, an ill man, a corpse, and an ascetic.  Overwhelmed by dismay, he wondered if there is a happiness that was not subject to change and decay.  Inspired by a forest wanderer, he renounced his title, abandoned his palace, his wife and newborn son, and set out into the wild and find answers to his questions as a religious ascetic. 

    He submitted himself to rigorous ascetic practices for six years.  He first went to several different religious teachers but did not derive any satisfaction from any of them.  So he set out to practice some extreme physical austerities of his own.  He did not reach his goal even though he was in the ultimate self-denial.  hen one day, remembering a state of calm as a child when he sat under a tree, he realized that liberation could only be achieved by being in a state of such calm.  He also realized that the body could not suffer such austerities and reach the strength of that calm.  So he stopped his extreme austerities one day and accepted milk rice offered to him by a young maid.  The same night, he sat under a bodhi tree near the town of Bodh-gaya and meditated until sunrise.  During the first watch of the night, Siddartha recalled his previous lives.  During the second watch of the night, which was around midnight, he saw how beings die and reborn through their karma, which is shaped by the nature of their intentions.  Towards dawn, he freed his mind of all cravings, attachments, defilements, and all intentions.  After that, he was awakened and earned the title of Buddha ("Awakened One").  For the rest of his life, convinced by the supreme deva, Brahma, the Buddha taught his dharma, or teachings, to all he encountered- men and women, the rich and the poor, and people from all lifestyles and levels of society- in hopes of that they, too, might attain awakening and enlightenment. One night in May when Buddha reached the ripe age of eighty, he laid down between two trees in a park and gave his last dharma to his followers and with that, he passed away and achieved total nirvana.