Sotheby’s has halted their planned auction of a cache of gemstones that were found alongside the Buddha’s ashes and bone fragments after a formal complaint was raised by the Indian government.

Known as the Buddha’s “gem relics,” those that were up for sale were a portion of the original archaeological discovery of 1,800 stones found in a large sarcophagus-like chamber under one of Buddha’s 8 relic stupas, which are round buildings built upon the sites.

Large portions of the discovery, made by a British colonial engineer William Claxton Peppé in a town in Uttar Pradesh called Piprawha, were distributed at the time to a museum in Kolkata, while the bone and ash fragments were sent via Hong Kong as gifts to the king of Siam, and interred in stupas across Southeast Asia. Approximately one-fifth of the gem relics were retained by Peppé.

“Nothing of comparable importance in early Buddhism has ever appeared at auction,” Sotheby’s had earlier said on its website, adding they held “unparalleled religious, archaeological and historical importance.”

The web page dedicated to the sale has since been taken down, CNN reported after covering the news on May 6th that the gem relics were set for the hammer.

“In a legal notice dated May 5th and addressed to Ivy Wong, associate general counsel of Sotheby’s Hong Kong, the Indian Ministry of Culture called for the relics to be withdrawn from the auction because the sale would violate Indian and international laws as well as United Nations conventions,” South China Morning Post reported from Hong Kong where Sotheby’s is located.

The gems “constitute inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community,” the notice read.

The World-Honored One

Prince Siddhārtha Gautama of the Shakya clan was born in Lumbini, Nepal, just 20 miles from the border of the Indian state of Bihar. He would later become Buddha in India, and spend his whole life preaching and eventually passing away there.

During the time of Peppé, there would have been virtually no Buddhist presence in India to speak of, and even today Buddhists make up a tiny fragment of the overall religious population of the country. Yet after independence it was a Lay Buddhist, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, who authored the Indian constitution, and his influence sparked something of a Buddhist revival in the country.

Today, as territorial custodians of virtually all sites connected to the Buddha’s life, India takes its responsibilities to global Buddhism seriously.

India’s foreign ministry said that the Peppé family had no right to sell the gem relics, since they were taken as a form of colonial plunder.

“In light of the matters raised by the Government of India and with the agreement of the consignors, the auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha, scheduled for May 7, has been postponed. This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate,” the auction house said in its announcement.

When Peppé excavated at Piprahwa, he found the remains of an ancient Buddhist stupa, under which lay a huge sandstone sarcophagus-like chamber. Inside lay five vessels containing the gem relics and ashes with bone fragments. An urn bore an inscription that read “relics of the Buddha, the August One,” in ancient Pali.

Imagining the bones of Jesus gives one a sense of the religious significance and value of this discovery—and it is one of several burials related to the Buddha’s relics. At the ancient site of Vaishali, in Bihar, another of these relic stupas was discovered, containing a green sandstone urn filled with ashy substance. The Pali Canon—the primary historical account written after the Buddha’s life, describes there being 8 of these stupas, each raised at places that had offered patronage to the Buddha’s mission.

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This urn was later buried beneath a modern stupa in Buddha Memorial Park in the capital city of Bihar.

In a statement provided to CNN before the close of the auction, Chris Peppé, William’s descendant, explained that it has always been his family’s intention to find an appropriate way to get the gem relics into the possession of a Buddhist nation or community. They have routinely toured the world in museums, with Chris allegedly hoping they would attract the attention of an institution that would allow them to be owned in trust for a Buddhist public.

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“Despite exhibitions in major museums including the Met, there has been relatively little interest from the public (including Buddhists) in the gems. Choosing temples and museums for donation all presented different problems on closer scrutiny,” he said.

“The auction seems to have finally brought the gems into the spotlight and may present the fairest and most transparent way to transfer this small part of the original find to Buddhists.”