My personal theory about Gautam Buddha. He was a son of a hindu King. He was exposed to some spiritual education and decided he needed to see the non materialistic side of life. He was a Super smart person; If he ran away in the direction of india rite away it might be possible that his Dad the King would send people to fetch him. So he might have headed to Chinese main land; they did have a very spiritual knowledge ; previous buddhas and Bodhi satva. After few years of studying, the King might have been advised to give up search . Then he returned to the indian territory and started his meditation. Buddha was the title given by the chinese spiritual world to whoever had attained nirvana. So they might have given him the title and he might have had his own followers. Infact he is the last buddha the 28th. It is said that there was one more comin. Actually although so popular these days the religion buddhism, this term has been very loosely used and its origin way different then contemporarily undersood. see prev threads. Pure specualation and just a theory. Peace