posted March 22, 2009 04:26 PM              

By Greig Box Turnbull 19/02/2009

Temple of a Million Bottles - Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew. Buddhist monks have recycled over one million used bottles to build their temple in Khun Han, Thailand near the Cambodian border. There are 20 buildings in the complex, all of which are made of green Heineken, brown Chang beer, various soft drinks, and Thai Red Bull bottles as a testament to recycling locally found objects.
____________________________________________________

Welcome to the temple of beer... though there’s not a drop to drink.

Buddhist monks – who believe strongly in the concept of rebirth – have made it by recycling a million beer bottles.

Local authorities have been encouraged to deposit empty beer bottles at the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew complex in north-east Thailand since 1984.

And it seems that the monks have got a real taste for the project – because they want even more. Abbot San Kataboonyo said: “The more bottles we get, the more buildings we make.”

Sometimes known as Wat Lan Kuad, or Temple of a Million Bottles, the monks now use the empties to construct almost everything on the site, from the crematorium to the toilets.

The disused bottles don’t fade, provide good lighting and are easy to clean. And the eco-friendliness does not just stop at glass – mosaics around the temple, mostly of Buddha, are made out of bottle caps.

The temple is on a list of eco-friendly sight-seeing tours in South-east Asia.

___________________