When was Prince Siddhartha born?
Historians agreed that Prince Siddhartha born in 623 BCE (or -622 in astronomical year notation). What month and date he was born we will discuss here.
There are two hints could be used to estimate Prince Siddhartha's date of birth.
- He was born on the full moon of Vesak and
- He was born on the eighth day of the fourth month of Chinese calender that traditionally marked as the Buddha's birthday
Baca seluruhnya...
Vesak celebration has three meanings i.e.,
- The birth of Prince Siddhartha in Lumbini in 623 BC
- Prince Siddhartha attain supreme enlightenment and became Buddha in the Buddha-Gaya (Bodhgaya) at the age of 35 years old in 588 BC and
- Gautama Buddha passed away (parinibbana) in Kusinara at age 80 in 543 BC.
While the Buddha's birthday marked in Chinese calendar has two meanings i.e.,
- The celeberation of Sakyamuni Buddha birthday and
- The celebration of Three Realms philosophy i.e. Kamadhatu (sensual desire realm), Rupadhatu (form or substance realm) dan Arupadhatu (formless realm).
1. BOD estimation by using the full moon of Vesak
By using New Moon And Full Moon calculator (or Uposatha calculator) and selecting the year of -622, I get information as shown in Table 1.
| Table 1. New Moon and Full Moon Of 623 BCE. Beijing Datetime (UT+8) ΔT = 5h17m42s | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ceit (First Day) | Capgo (15th Day) | Purnama (Full Moon) |
| -622-Jan-02 03:33:09 | -622-Jan-16 | Fri. -622-Jan-16 14:06:18 |
| -622-Jan-31 13:52:40 | -622-Feb-14 | Sun. -622-Feb-15 08:26:21 |
| -622-Mar-01 22:45:59 | -622-Mar-15 | Tue. -622-Mar-17 01:07:27 |
| -622-Mar-31 06:57:35 | -622-Apr-14 | Wed. -622-Apr-15 15:31:55 |
| -622-Apr-29 15:28:58 | -622-May-13 | Fri. -622-May-15 03:39:32 |
| -622-May-29 01:19:44 | -622-Jun-12 | Sat. -622-Jun-13 13:50:26 |
| -622-Jun-27 13:11:10 | -622-Jul-11 | Sun. -622-Jul-12 22:37:40 |
| -622-Jul-27 03:17:54 | -622-Aug-10 | Tue. -622-Aug-11 06:46:24 |
| -622-Aug-25 19:28:32 | -622-Sep-08 | Wed. -622-Sep-09 15:10:51 |
| -622-Sep-24 13:08:44 | -622-Oct-08 | Fri. -622-Oct-09 00:45:05 |
| -622-Oct-24 07:20:51 | -622-Nov-07 | Sat. -622-Nov-07 12:08:32 |
| -622-Nov-23 00:47:54 | -622-Dec-07 | Mon. -622-Dec-07 01:32:05 |
| -622-Dec-22 16:14:59 | -621-Jan-05 | Tue. -621-Jan-05 16:36:30 |
By looking at Table 1, I immediately know Prince siddhartha was born on Friday, May 15th 623 BCE. With the same way I could know he attained enlightenment on Tuesday, May 17th 588 BCE and passed away on Monday, May 30th 543 BCE.
2. BOD estimation with Chinese calender
The Chinese calendar explicitly mentions the date and month of birth of Prince Siddharta. By using Yin Yang Li Calculator and selecting the year of -622, give me a table as presented below.
| Table 2. Result of Yin Yang Calculator for 623 BCE. ΔT = 5h17m | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beijing Date |
Day # |
Month # |
Year Of Conf. Era Astro. |
Day of Week |
| -622-Jan-31 | 1 | 1 | -71 | Sat |
| -622-Mar-02 | 1 | 2 | -71 | Mon |
| -622-Mar-31 | 1 | 3 | -71 | Tue |
| -622-Apr-29 | 1 | Lun 3 | -71 | Wed |
| -622-May-29 | 1 | 4 | -71 | Fri |
| -622-Jun-27 | 1 | 5 | -71 | Sat |
| -622-Jul-27 | 1 | 6 | -71 | Mon |
| -622-Aug-26 | 1 | 7 | -71 | Wed |
| -622-Sep-24 | 1 | 8 | -71 | Thu |
| -622-Oct-24 | 1 | 9 | -71 | Sat |
| -622-Nov-23 | 1 | 10 | -71 | Mon |
| -622-Dec-22 | 1 | 11 | -71 | Tue |
| -621-Jan-21 | 1 | 12 | -71 | Thu |
| -621-Feb-19 | 1 | 1 | -70 | Fri |
From Table 2, I found that the first day of the fourth month falls on Friday, May 29th 623 BCE. By counting the day up to the day eighth, I get Prince Siddhartha's date of birth is on Friday, April 5th 623 BCE.
Note:
-
Uncertainty of 5 hours 17 minutes or approximately one-fifth of the day is good enough for the calculation that spans 2638 years from 2015 CE to 623 BCE backward.
3. Conclusion
If there was no intercalary month (Lun 3) in the calendar at that time, then the date of birth of Prince Siddhartha will be corrected by 30 days back to Wednesday, May 6th 623 BC. A result that is nearly the same as the calculation based on the full moon of Vesak because the eighth day of the fourth month is not a full moon day (according to Chinese calendar, a full moon day is always around the 15th day of a month). In my subjective opinion, this is due to- The assumption that Vesak is equal to May might be wrong and give errors.
-
Calculation of the true sun (定期 Dingqi) and the true moon (定朔 Dingshuo) used since the calendar reform in 1645 AD up to present, in a certain degree, is different to the calculation of the mean solar system (Pingqi 平 氣) and the average month (Pingshuo 平朔) used at that time. Therefore, the presence or absence of an intercalary month, LUN 3, could only be verified by means of:
- Creating a calendar program utilizes system of that era.
- Accessing and checking the calendar of Chinese empire dated 623 BC.
Reference:
2. Palmer, Martin, et al.,T'ung Shu: The Ancient Chinese Almanac, edited and translated, Vinpress, Malaysia, 1991.