This relief shows three scenes. The scene on the bottom right shows the Mahanirvana of the Buddha. The Buddha lies on his right side, on a high, sheet-covered bed with elaborate legs. His head is supported by his right hand. His hair is tied up in an ushnisa with a tiny halo behind. In front of the death-bed sits Subhadra, his last pupil, on a low cushion At the bed head stands Vajrapani holding the thunderbolt in his left hand. and as a sign of mourning he touches the top of his head with his right hand. On the end of the death bed the monk Mahakasyapa bends mournfully and reverently over the feet of his Master. Behind the dead Buddha, the busts of three Malla princes in various postures of despair, animate the background scene. In the left-hand scene we watch the cremation of the Buddha's corpse. In the centre of the work rises an altar-like platform with three decorated rosettes in the front, with flames emerging from the middle. Two Mallas help the heavenly rain to put out the fire, holding their long poles fixed with water jugs.
On the top frieze which is narrower we see a cortege of ten men in Parthian costumes moving to the left, in a gyrating dance-like motion. Some hold containers of various shapes, possibly reliquaries- the scene could represent the distribution of the Buddha's relics.