history homework

563-547 BC- Siddhartha spends his childhood in the palace of his father.

547 BC- At the early age of sixteen, he marries his beautiful cousin Princess Yasodhara, who is of equal age.

547-533 BC- The young prince spends thirteen more years together with his wife in the royal court of his father. Three palaces are built for him, one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the rainy season. Siddhartha enjoys the lavish court life while his father is trying to screen him from all troubles and worries. A son is born while Siddhartha is in his late twenties.

533 BC - Despite of the amenities of life, Siddhartha is not satisfied with the mere enjoyment of fleeting pleasures due to his inquiring and contemplative nature. One day, he leaves the palace for an excursion and Siddhartha realizes that there is old age, sickness, and death, and that people ultimately have little control over their lives.

533 BC - The Renunciation- In the night of his 29th birthday, Siddhartha gives up his life as a prince and secretly leaves the court while everyone is asleep. He travels far.

533-528 BC- He becomes a penniless and homeless wanderer. He leads a life of self-mortification and spiritual study. After a long and exhausting period of searching and self-mortification, he finally becomes disillusioned with the Indian caste system, Hindu asceticism, and the religious doctrines of his time. He gives up the ascetic life and loses all of his disciples as a result. Nevertheless, he continues his search for truth through the practice of meditation.

April/May 528 BC – Enlightenment - While meditating under a Bodhi tree in Bodh-Gaya, he experiences the Great Enlightenment, which reveals to him the way of salvation from suffering. He spends seven weeks meditating in the vicinity of the site of the Bodhi tree and attains the status of a fully realized Buddha at the age of 35.

June/July 528 BC - First Sermon - Buddha finds his former five disciples in Benares. He begins teaching them and they become the first disciples of the Buddhist order.

528-527 BC- During a short period of time, Buddha establishes a great reputation in western Hindustan by converting thousands of people to the Buddhist teaching.

March 527 BC- The Buddha briefly returns to the palace of his father to convert the royal family and ordains many of the Sakya tribe.

523-483 BC- In the 45 years following his enlightenment, Buddha travels to teach the tenets of Buddhism. He is extremely successful and attracts thousands of people from all walks of life, who voluntarily decide to follow his teachings

483 BC - Death and Pari-Nirvana- Having achieved the goal of spreading the teaching to the greatest number of people, Buddha dies at the age of eighty years, as a result of food poisoning.