NEW DELHI, May 7. /TASS/. Sotheby's auction house delayed the sale of jewels linked to Buddha's corporeal relics that was due to take place on Wednesday in Hong Kong, The Hindu newspaper reported.

The auction was suspended after India's Ministry of Culture opposed the sale, demanded that the organizers apologize and hand the jewels over to the Indian authorities.

This demand was supported by the leaders of the Buddhist monastic clergy of Sri Lanka. In an appeal to the British government, they expressed outrage at the possible sale of relics that represent the highest spiritual value for the Buddhist faithful community around the world.

The jewels that were meant to go under the hammer at the Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong are part of a private British collection. They come from a hoard of nearly 1,800 pearls, rubies, topaz, sapphires and patterned gold sheets, first glimpsed in late 19th century near Buddha's burial site near Lumbini in northern India (now Rummindei, Nepal). Scientists date relics to around 240-200 BC and agree that they could have belonged to the Buddha himself.

In 1898, William Claxton Peppe, an English estate manager, excavated a stupa at Piprahwa just south of Lumbini, where the founder of Buddhism is believed to have been born. He handed the unearthed relics and reliquaries to the colonial Indian government, and the majority of the treasures were sent to the Indian Museum of Kolkata (then the Imperial Museum of Calcutta). After Peppe got permission from the authorities to keep some of the jewelry as his property, he took about a fifth of the hoard, mostly duplicates, to the British Isles.

According to the discoverer's descendants, they had previously looked into donating the relics, but this was never done for a number of reasons, and Peppe's great-grandchildren viewed the planned auction as "the fairest and most transparent way to give these relics to Buddhists."

Sotheby's experts conducted requisite due diligence, including in relation to authenticity and provenance, legality and other considerations. According to the experts, the relics have "unrivaled religious, archaeological and historical value."