Kushinagar is 53 km. west of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. It is revered as the site of Buddha’s mahaparitxirvana, his death and cremation.
That marked his final liberation from the cycles of death and rebirth. During the Buddha’s lifetime, Kushinara, as it was then called was a small town in the kingdom of the Mallas.
About 1.5 km. south-east of the main site lies the Ramabhar Stupa which is thought the original Mukutabandhana Stupa, erected to mark the spot of the Buddha’s cremation.