where the Buddha lay down to die in a forest, between twin sal trees, while flowers showered over him. Three times he asked the hundreds who had assembled if there was anything unclear about the teachings and practice, and each time there was silence, which implied that his teachings had been well understood. He closed his eyes, then he opened them one last time as the sun was setting. “All conditioned reality is subject to decay, strive on diligently,” he said. Those were his final words. News of the Buddha’s passing spread and people kept arriving in large numbers. After a week, the Buddha’s body was taken to the Hiranyavati river bank to be cremated. As the cremation was about to start, a messenger came to say that the elder Maha Kashyapa was coming north with five hundred monks.

Maha Kashyapa arrived, circumambulated the body three times, and then lit the pyre. There is now a beautiful stupa to mark that spot. Even before the pyre had cooled down, a war almost broke out over the relics, until a local Brahmin priest suggested that they be divided so that each could get a share. Today, it’s poignant to sit by the eighteen-foot reclining Buddha statue in Kushinagar while contemplating his profound teachings on “no birth and no death.”

මල්ල රාජධානියෙහි පිහිටි උපවත්තන සාල වනෝද්‍යානයේදී භාග්‍යවතුන් වහන්සේ අවසන් සම්බුදු වදන දේශනා කලේ ද නිරුපාදී ශේෂ ධාතුවෙන් මහා පරිනිර්වාණයට පත් වුයේ ද කුසිනාරා නුවර යි.