A reclining Buddha
The reclining Buddha represents Shakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha) at his death. It is said that the Buddha knew death was approaching, and asked his disciples to prepare a couch for him in a grove. He lay there, reclining on his right side, facing west, with his head supported by his hand, as he passed into nirvana.
The statue of the Reclining Buddha is not supposed to evoke sadness, but rather encouragement that all beings have the potential to become enlightened and attain release from the sufferings which characterize the cycle of rebirth. The reclining Buddha's serene, composed, and restful demeanor (he is actually slightly smiling) a reminder of the serenity that comes with enlightenment.

The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal, in approximately
566 BC. When he was twenty-nine years old, he left the comforts of his home to seek the meaning of the suffering he saw around him. After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and instead sat in mindful meditation beneath a bodhi tree. On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the enlightened one. The Buddha wandered the plains of northeastern India for 45 years more, teaching the path or Dharma he had realized in that moment. Around him developed a community or Sangha of monks and, later, nuns, drawn from every tribe and caste, devoted to practicing this path. In approximately 486 BC, at the age of 80, the Buddha died.