Kushinagar, the Land of Nirvana

Going east again twelve yojanas, they came to the city of Kushinagar. North of the city, between the twin trees on the bank of the Hiranyavati river, the World Honored One laid his head to the north and entered nirvana. There are the place where Subhadra was the last to gain the Way; the place where the World Honored One was laid in the golden coffin and offerings were made to him for seven days; the place where the strong one with the thunderbolt laid down his golden mace; and the place where eight kings divided the relics. At all these places stupas have been raised, and there are sangharamas as well, and all are standing to this day.

In that city too the people are few and scattered; there are only the monks and a few households.

Going southeast from here twelve yojanas, one comes to the place where the Licchavis (梨車) wished to follow the Buddha as he went to enter nirvana. The Buddha would not allow it, but they loved him and would not go away. So the Buddha made appear a great deep ditch that they could not cross, and he gave them his alms bowl for a token of faith and sent them home. A stone pillar was set up at that place, and there is an inscription cut upon it.

Going east from here ten yojanas, they came to the country of Vaishali. North of the city of Vaishali is the monastery of the double storey in the Great Grove (大林), where the Buddha dwelt, and the stupa of half of Ananda's body is there as well. Within that city, on the site that was the house of the woman Amrapali, a stupa was raised for the Buddha, and it is standing to this day. Three li south of the city, on the west of the road, is the place where the woman Amrapali gave her garden to the Buddha for him to dwell in. When the Buddha was going to enter nirvana, he went out of the west gate of the city of Vaishali with his disciples, turned his body round to the right, looked back at the city of Vaishali, and said to his disciples, "This is the last place I shall walk." Later men raised a stupa at that place.

Three li to the northwest of the city there is a stupa named Bows Laid Down (放弓仗), that is, the place where bows and weapons were laid down. It is named so for this reason. Upstream on the Ganges there was a king, and the king's lesser wife bore a lump of flesh. The first wife was jealous of her and said, "You have borne a sign of ill omen." She put it in a wooden box at once and threw it into the Ganges. Downstream a king was out looking about him, and he saw the wooden box upon the water. He opened it and looked, and there were a thousand little children, well formed and out of the common. The king took them and reared them. They grew up brave and strong, and wherever they went to war there was nothing they did not break and subdue. Next they were about to strike the country of their own father the king, and the king was greatly troubled. The lesser wife asked the king why he was troubled, and the king said, "The king of that country has a thousand sons, brave and strong beyond compare, and they mean to come and strike our country. That is why I am troubled." The lesser wife said, "Do not be troubled. Only build a high tower on the east of the city, and when the enemy come, set me on the tower, and I shall drive them back." The king did as she said. When the enemy came, the lesser wife spoke to them from the tower, "You are my sons. Why do you do this rebellious thing?" The enemy said, "Who are you, that you call yourself our mother?" The lesser wife said, "If you do not believe it, look up together and open your mouths." Then the lesser wife pressed her two breasts with her two hands, and from each of them the milk ran in five hundred streams and fell into the mouths of the thousand sons. The enemy knew that she was their mother, and they laid down their bows and their weapons. The two fathers, the kings, pondered this deeply, and both gained the state of a pratyekabuddha. The stupas of the two pratyekabuddhas are standing yet. Afterwards, when the World Honored One had completed the Way, he said to his disciples, "This is the place where long ago I laid down bow and weapons." Later men came to know of it and set up a stupa here, and that is why it is so named. Those thousand little children are the thousand buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa. Beside the stupa of Bows Laid Down the Buddha said to Ananda, "Three months from now I shall enter nirvana." But the king of the demons so muddled Ananda that he could not beg the Buddha to stay in the world.

Going east from here three or four li there is a stupa. A hundred years after the Buddha entered nirvana, there were monks of Vaishali who went wrong in the keeping of the discipline, and in ten matters they insisted that the Buddha had said it was so. At that time the arhats and the monks who kept the discipline, seven hundred of them in all, examined the basket of the discipline again. Later men raised a stupa at this place, and it is standing to this day.

Going east from here four yojanas, one comes to the mouth where five rivers meet. Ananda was going from the country of Magadha toward Vaishali, wishing to enter nirvana, and the gods told King Ajatashatru of it. King Ajatashatru had his carriage made ready at once and led his troops himself in pursuit, and came to the river. The Licchavis of Vaishali heard that Ananda was coming, and they too came out to meet him, and both parties came to the river. Ananda thought, "If I go forward, King Ajatashatru will bear a grudge; if I go back, the Licchavis in their turn will be aggrieved." So in the middle of the river he entered the samadhi of fire light, burned his body and entered nirvana, and his body was parted into two shares, one share on either bank. The two kings each got the relics of half his body, and went home and raised stupas.