Buddhist tradition holds that the Buddha, at around eighty years of age, died at Kushinagar, in present day Uttar Pradesh in northern India, lying between a pair of sal trees after a final journey during which, according to the Pali Canon, he taught and traveled despite failing health, having consumed a final meal offered by a lay follower named Cunda that the tradition associates with his final illness, though the Buddha himself is said to have absolved Cunda of any blame.
Buddhist tradition distinguishes this event, called parinirvana, meaning final or complete nirvana, from the Buddha's enlightenment decades earlier, understood as the attainment of nirvana during his lifetime, sometimes called nirvana with remainder, since a living body and its associated experiences continued afterward. Parinirvana, by contrast, marks his final release from the cycle of rebirth entirely, with no further physical existence to follow, and is treated in most Buddhist traditions as the completion rather than merely the end of his spiritual accomplishment.
Following his death, tradition holds that his remains were cremated and the resulting relics divided among several groups of his followers and regional rulers, who are said to have disputed briefly over the division before reaching an agreement, enshrining the relics in stupas across the region, a practice that became foundational to the wider Buddhist tradition of relic veneration that continues today.