Baba Buddha Ji met Guru Nanak Dev Ji as a boy of about eleven or twelve and lived to serve six Gurus over more than a century. No other person in Sikh history spans that arc.
He performed the ceremony of installation for the second through the sixth Gurus, applying the tilak. He was made the first granthi of the Harmandir when the Adi Granth was installed in 1604, and he carried the volume on his head into the building.
He supervised the digging of the tank at Amritsar and the building of the Akal Takht. He trained Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji in arms as a boy.
The village of Ramdas in Amritsar district is where he farmed and where he died in 1631. Gurdwara Ber Sahib at Amritsar marks the spot in the Harmandir complex where he sat while the tank was dug.
He is the model of the Sikh who never held office and whose authority came only from length and quality of service.
He installed five Gurus, which means he performed the ceremony conferring the succession, and no other person in the tradition did it more than once.
He was the first granthi of the Harmandir when the volume was installed in 1604, and he supervised the digging of the sarovar and the building around it.
He lived to about a hundred and twenty five by the traditional reckoning and died at Ramdas, where his cremation site is marked.