Gautama Buddha

About Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha, the historical figure ranked second in overall influence by MIT's Pantheon project, was the founder of Buddhism, a philosophy and religion that has shaped the spiritual and ethical landscape of Asia and beyond for over two millennia. Born Siddhartha Gautama in ancient India (c. 566–452 BCE), his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree led to the articulation of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path-a framework for understanding suffering and achieving liberation that remains central to countless lives today.

Despite this profound and enduring historical importance, the modern internet shows a significant disconnect in attention. Buddha garnered an annualized total of 410K Wikipedia views in 2025, resulting in an Attention Gap factor of -5x, meaning his online attention is five times lower than his historical standing suggests. To put this in context, the much less historically significant philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, ranked #103, received over five times the attention with 2.1M views in the same year. While interest is slightly growing, with a 2025 Momentum gain of +2% between Q1 and Q3, the overall 7.7% year-over-year drop suggests a continued, albeit slow, drift away from this foundational figure in digital discourse.