As with the Buddha's birth, his death is dated differently by traditional Buddhist chronology and by modern historical scholarship. The long chronology used widely within Theravada Buddhism places his death in 544 or 543 BCE, a date that has served as the epochal starting point for the Buddhist Era calendar still used in several Theravada majority countries. Modern scholarship, working from a more critical comparison of Buddhist, Jain and Greek sources touching on the chronology of the wider period, has generally favored a considerably later date, placing his death closer to 400 BCE, a revision of roughly a century and a half from the traditional reckoning.
This chronological uncertainty does not affect the Buddha's historicity as a figure, which is not seriously questioned by scholars, but it does mean that events dated relative to his life, including his birth, enlightenment and the various councils held after his death to preserve his teaching, carry a corresponding uncertainty when translated into absolute calendar terms.
Kushinagar remains the fourth of the four principal Buddhist pilgrimage sites associated with the Buddha's life, and the Parinirvana Temple built at the traditional site of his death houses a large reclining Buddha statue depicting the moment described in the traditional accounts, drawing pilgrims from across the Buddhist world to the place tradition holds as the location of his final release.