Followers of Rastafarianism believe Haile Selassie was a god, and some sects question his death in 1975 while under house arrest following a Marxist coup in 1974.
"Clearly, they don't have a semblance of respect for people's minds," Miguel Lorne, a Rastafarian and Kingston-based publisher, said of the reburial by members of the Ethiopian royal family. He said he believes the discovery of the bones is a hoax.
Officially, Selassie died at age 83 of complications due to a prostate condition, but some in Ethiopia believe he was assassinated.
The remains were found in 1992 under a concrete slab on the grounds of Selassie's former palace. On Sunday, they were buried in a crypt at Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Several Rastafarians, including Rita Marley, the widow of reggae legend Bob Marley, attended the ceremony.
They were defended by Louis Moyston, a Rastafarian and lecturer at the University of the West Indies.
"If the royal family accepts it, then they have all rights to bury his remains," Moyston said.
Rastafarianism arose in 1930s Jamaica and has since spread throughout the Caribbean. Its followers often wear dreadlocks and regard the smoking of marijuana as a sacred rite.
Haile Selassie himself was a Christian and denied he was a god.
