Within the Theravāda tradition, the Buddha is regarded as an extraordinary yet fully human being, Siddhattha Gotama, whose life is preserved above all in the Pāli Canon. Born as a prince among the Sakyas, he encountered the realities of old age, sickness, and death, as well as the example of a renunciant, which stirred a profound sense of spiritual urgency. This confrontation with suffering led him to abandon palace life and undertake the life of a wandering ascetic, seeking a path beyond the pervasive unsatisfactoriness of conditioned existence. His story is not that of a god descending from above, but of a human being who, through perseverance over many lives and in his final life, brought wisdom and virtue to perfection.

Theravāda accounts emphasize his rigorous search: training under renowned meditation teachers, mastering refined meditative states, and then recognizing that these attainments did not yield final liberation. He turned to severe asceticism for about six years, pushing the body to the brink of death, only to discover that such self-mortification was as unhelpful as sensual indulgence. From this realization emerged the Middle Way, a balanced path between extremes, which became the framework for his subsequent practice and teaching. This narrative presents his life as a careful testing of spiritual options, culminating in a path that others can realistically follow.

The enlightenment itself is portrayed with great detail and reverence. Seated beneath the Bodhi tree at Bodhgayā, firmly resolved not to rise until fully awakened, he faced and overcame the assaults and temptations of Māra, the embodiment of delusion and death. During the three watches of the night, he first recalled countless past lives, then perceived the arising and passing of beings according to their karma, and finally realized the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination. In that final phase, all defilements—greed, hatred, and delusion—were utterly destroyed, and he became both a Buddha and an arahant, one who has ended the cycle of rebirth. This awakening is understood not as union with a permanent self or deity, but as penetrating insight into impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self.

After awakening, the Buddha is depicted as initially hesitant to teach, judging the Dhamma to be subtle and difficult to grasp, yet moved by compassion to share it. His first discourse at Sarnath set in motion the Wheel of Dhamma, presenting the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path as the practical route to liberation. For the remaining forty-five years of his life, he wandered and taught people from all walks of life, established the monastic Saṅgha, and laid down the Vinaya, so that the path would endure. He is honored as the “Teacher of gods and humans,” a supreme guide rather than a creator, and his life serves as a paradigm of morality, concentration, and wisdom that others may emulate.

Theravāda understanding culminates in the account of his parinibbāna at Kusinārā at the age of eighty. With the breakup of his physical and mental aggregates, there is no further rebirth, and his presence is thereafter encountered through the Dhamma and Vinaya he left behind. While he holds a unique status as the rediscoverer and proclaimer of the path in this era, his liberation is not seen as exclusive: arahants who follow his teaching share the same freedom from saṃsāra, though not his role as world-teacher. In this way, his life and enlightenment are revered both as a singular historical unfolding and as a living template for the spiritual journey of all who take up the path.