Discovering Buddha's Birth Date

Statue of Buddha.  Image via Wikimedia Commons

Very little is known about the life of Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - other than through textual writings and oral traditions.  For example, we know the Buddha was born in Nepal, but not precisely when he was born.  Now, archaeologists believe they may have found the answer to this question - and he was born a lot longer ago than previously thought.

According to an article in Huffington Post, an archaeological team working at a sacred temple in Nepal - long identified as the birthplace of the Buddha - have unearthed a timber structure dating to the 6th century B.C., the oldest ever found.  This suggests a birth date for the Buddha that is several hundred years earlier than experts had previously believed.



The timber structure, built as a shrine, was discovered beneath the sacred Maya Devi Temple, in Lumbini, Nepal.

You can read more about this exciting new discovery at HuffingtonPost.