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Philosopher · ◇ Light

Gautama Buddha

coreattestedc. 563–483 BCEBuddhism

The Awakened One, founder of Buddhism.

Wisdom87
Peace86
Compassion92
Light88
✦Signature powerAwakeningSees through the illusion of self and steps off the wheel of rebirth.
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Its universe

The mythic order Gautama Buddha belongs to, who comes before and after in the story of this world.

The same idol, across the ages

Scholars have long read Gautama Buddha as one face of a wider figure that recurs under many names through history: the the founder-prophet.

1300 BCEMosesJudaism1000 BCEZoroasterZoroastrianism523 BCEGautama BuddhaBuddhism601 CEMuhammadIslam
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Voices & connections

Figures bound to Gautama Buddha, family and rivals within the myth, and the thinkers and writers who shaped how we know them.

The All-Seeing Eyeassociated withThe Axis Mundi (World Tree)associated withMaraenemy of

Relics & objects

Sacred and cursed things that belong to the world of Gautama Buddha.

VajraSacred

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Gautama Buddha appears. Start reading in a click.

Illustrated storyThe Night Under the TreeA prince is walled inside a paradise so he will never learn that beings grow old, sicken and die, and learns it in four chariot rides. He walks out at midnight, starves himself to the edge of death, accepts a bowl of milk-rice, and sits down under a fig tree with a vow not to rise. What comes for him in the dark is Mara, with an army, three daughters, and one devastating question, and what answers is the earth itself.Begin reading →