I believe the Buddha was a real person (even though his social background and life details are hard to prove). He was born in Lumbini sometime in the 5th century BCE from the Gotama clan of the Shakya tribe, in present-day Nepal, and spent his life living and travelling around the Ganges Plain, near the modern Nepal–India border.
According to 7D/1.17 Devatārocana, an “assembly of gods and deities” provides the following short description of the Buddha (translation by me):
Indeed, Venerable Sir, in this very fortunate aeon, the Blessed One has now arisen in the world, an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, is a Khattiya by birth, born into a Khattiya family. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, is Gotama by clan. The Blessed One’s lifespan, Venerable Sir, is short, limited, and brief; [in this age] one who lives long lives for a hundred years or a little more. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, was fully enlightened at the foot of an Assattha tree. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, had a pair of disciples named Sāriputta and Moggallāna, a chief, excellent pair. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, had one assembly of disciples of twelve hundred and fifty monks. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, this one assembly of His disciples consisted entirely of those whose taints were destroyed. The Blessed One, Venerable Sir, had a monk named Ānanda as attendant, the chief attendant. The Blessed One’s father, Venerable Sir, was a king named Suddhodana. A lady named Māyā was His mother, His birth-mother. A city named Kapilavatthu was His royal capital. Of the Blessed One, Venerable Sir, thus was the renunciation, thus the going forth into homelessness, thus the striving, thus the full enlightenment, thus the setting in motion of the Wheel of Dhamma. We, Venerable Sir, having lived the holy life under the Blessed One, having eradicated sensual desire for sensual pleasures, are reborn here.’
According to 9M/3.6 Pāsarāsisutta, as a young man he started to question the nature of existence, of being born and subject to the negative consequences of life such as growing old, falling sick, dying, sorrow. He started to search for a path out of these consequences. He renounced and became an ascetic and followed the practices of various teachers. He eventually concluded these teachings did not lead to satisfactory answers.
He ultimately discovered the answers himself and attained Perfect Enlightenment (sammāsambodhi).
Out of compassion for other living beings, he taught a way for others to achieve enlightenment. This is classified as a soteriology, or a “doctrine of salvation” so that others can follow in his footsteps and free themselves from the burden of “suffering” and “rebirth.”
It would appear the Buddha’s teachings were successful - thousands of people became enlightened as a result of his teachings and became arahant (enlightened beings) in his lifetime.
The Buddha’s teachings spread throughout much of Asia along trading routes. Even today the Buddha’s teachings is highly appealing to many people, and there has been a surge of interest in the last century or so from industrialised and developed countries.
Although it originated as a philosophy and soteriology, today Buddhism is regarded as a religion (the fourth most popular in the world1, with approximately 500 million adherents).
However, as a percentage of the world population, Buddhism is a declining religion, with the number of adherents expect to reduce from 7.1% of the world population in 2010 to 5.2% by 2050.
Buddhism is a rapidly growing religion in Australia since the 1980s and now represents about 2.4% of Australia’s population2 based on the 2021 census but the growth has been primarily due to immigration.
Footnotes
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The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050 Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. ↩