Buddhist Temple Built Of Recycled Beer Bottles

By Staff

Friday, February 20, 2009, 17:30

A temple in Northeast Thailand has its roof and walls made out of one million recycled beer bottles by monks.

The temple is known as Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew, Wat Lan Kuad or 'the Temple of a Million Bottles', in Sisaket province which is 400 hundred miles from Bangkok near the Cambodian border.

The Buddhist monks have said to have collected the bottles since 1984. Having gathered a huge number of bottles they sought to use them as building material.

The monks who are inviting the local authorities to send more bottles, have made a complex of around 20 buildings using the beer bottles which consists of the main temple over a lake, crematorium, prayer rooms, a hall, water tower, tourist bathrooms and several small bungalows raised off the ground, and which serve as the monks' quarters.

The 'Telegraph' has Abbot San Kataboonyo as saying. "The more bottles we get, the more buildings we make".

The monks feel that the bottles, which are a mixture of green Heineken bottles and brown Thai beer Chang, do not lose their colour, aid in good lighting and are easy to be cleaned and maintained.

The beer bottle caps also have a role in the making. Mosaics of Buddha have been made out of the caps by the eco-friendly monks.

About 1.5 million recycled bottles have been involved in the making of the temple and the monks are into using more for the building which has now been listed under the eco-friendly sight seeing tourist attractions in Southeast Asia.