Located in the ancient city of Kushinagara, the Parinirvana Stupa is a Buddhist temple and is known to be the death place of Gautama Buddha. The Parinirvana Stupa is situated in the ruins of the various ancient monasteries which were founded during the 5th century AD. The inscriptions of these ruins suggest that the remains of Lord Buddha lie in this place.
History of Parinirvana Stupa
A major part of Lord Buddha"s life was spent in conducting missionary activities and after 45 years, when he was severely stricken with illness, Lord Buddha reached Kushinagara where he ordained his last disciple and uttered his last words to sangha and attained Parinirvana in 487 BCE. During the reign of the Mauryan King Ashoka, he often visited Kushinagara in 260 BCE and built multiple viharas, chaityas and stupas to honour Buddha"s place of Parinirvana.
During the Kushan Empire, the Buddhist sites of Kushinagara was steadily expanded and much proliferation was witnessed during the age of the Gupta Empire, when the Parinirvana Stupa was largely expanded and the Parinirvana Temple was reconstructed along with a huge reclining Buddha statue, which is 6.1 m long and rests on a stone couch. The present temple was built by the Indian Government in 1956 as part of the commemoration of the 2,500th year of the Mahaparinivana or 2500 B.E which is called the Buddhist Era.
Visiting Information on Parinirvana Stupa
The Kushinagara railway station is the nearest located at a distance of 19 km from the Parinirvana Stupa and the Kushinagara International Airport is the closest at a distance of 7 km from the stupa.
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