According to the Buddhist legend, a prediction said that Prince Siddhartha would become an ascetic if he saw the sufferings of life. His father, King Shuddhodana, kept him inside the palace. He “surrounded him with earthly pleasures and luxury, thereby concealing the realities of life.”
At 29, Siddhartha left the palace for the first time. He saw an old man, a sick man and a corpse, then an ascetic. Some time later he left the palace for good, on his horse Kanthaka.