http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/temple-built-from-beer-bottles.php Buddhist Temple Built from Beer Bottles by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.27.08 Design & Architecture Fifty years ago the Heineken Beer company looked at reshaping its beer bottle to be useful as a building block. It never happened, so Buddhist monks from Thailand's Sisaket province took matters into their own hands and collected a million bottles to build the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple. It puts every other bottle building we have shown to shame. Even the washrooms and the crematorium are built of bottles, a mix of green Heineken and brown local Chang beer. Once again, proving Alex Steffen's point that there is no such thing as garbage, just useful stuff in the wrong place. Thanks to Greenupgrader ---------------\ http://inhabitat.com/temple-of-a-million-bottles/ The Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple has found a way to bottle-up Nirvana, literally. The temple, which sits in Thailand’s Sisaket province, roughly 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million recycled glass bottles. True to its nickname, “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” features glass bottles throughout the premises of the temple, including the crematorium, surrounding shelters, and yes – even the toilets. There’s an estimated 1.5 million recycled bottles built into the temple, and as you might have guessed, they are committed to recycling more. After all, the more bottles they get, the more buildings they are able to construct. Read more: Thai Temple Built From One Million Recycled Bottles | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World ================== http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4687433/Buddhist-temple-built-out-of-one-million-beer-bottles.html Buddhist temple built out of one million beer bottles A temple has been built by monks in northeast Thailand who used over a million recycled beer bottles to make the walls and roof. Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew, also known as Wat Lan Kuad or 'the Temple of a Million Bottles', is in Sisaket province near the Cambodian border, 400 miles from the capital Bangkok. The Buddhist monks began collecting bottles in 1984 and they collected so many that they decided to use them as a building material. They encouraged the local authorities to send them more and they have now created a complex of around 20 buildings using the beer bottles, comprising the main temple over a lake, crematorium, prayer rooms, a hall, water tower, tourist bathrooms and several small bungalows raised off the ground which serve as monks quarters. The bottles do not lose their colour, provide good lighting and are easy to clean, the men say. A concrete core is used to strengthen the building and the green bottles are Heineken and the brown ones are the Thai beer Chang. The monks are so eco-friendly that the mosaics of Buddha are created with recycled beer bottle caps. Altogether there are about 1.5 million recycled bottles in the temple, and the monks at the temple are intending to reuse even more. Abbot San Kataboonyo said: "The more bottles we get, the more buildings we make." The beer bottle temple is now on an approved list of eco-friendly sight-seeing tours in southeast Asia. =========================\\ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1148758/Pictured-The-Buddhist-temple-built-using-1-5million-recycled-beer-bottles.html Built using more than a million beer bottles, this incredible temple in the north-east of Thailand is a novel way to recycle any empties. The resident Buddhist monks at the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew complex encourage local authorities to deposit any used bottles at the temple which they then use to build new structures. Having already built the a temple and even shelters, the monks who live in the town of Khun Han really have got into the spirit of recycling. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1148758/Pictured-The-Buddhist-temple-built-using-1-5million-recycled-beer-bottles.html#ixzz1VWtmnXkJ Sometimes known as Wat Lan Kuad, or Temple Of A Million Bottles, the temple uses the discarded bottles to construct everything from the crematorium to the toilets. Altogether there are about 1.5million recycled bottles in the temple, and the monks at there are intending to recycling even more. 'The more bottles we get, the more buildings we make,' says Abbot San Kataboonyo. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1148758/Pictured-The-Buddhist-temple-built-using-1-5million-recycled-beer-bottles.html#ixzz1VWtuxnYc Recycling doesn't stop at building the temple's buildings - mosaics around the temple, predominantly of Buddha, are made out of bottle caps. Besides being ego-friendly, the disused bottles don't fade, provide good lighting and are easy to clean. 'The monks at Wat Lan Kuad started collecting the bottles they needed to build their temple complex in 1984,' said one tourist at the site. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1148758/Pictured-The-Buddhist-temple-built-using-1-5million-recycled-beer-bottles.html#ixzz1VWu0tkmv 'They kept this up until they had nearly one million recycled bottles ready to construct their pagodas and temple. 'Even though drinking is a sin in Buddhism, this still seems like a positive use of beer and lager bottles.' Representing the cleansing of the human mind, the beer-bottle-temple is now on an approved list of eco-friendly sightseeing tours in South-East Asia. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1148758/Pictured-The-Buddhist-temple-built-using-1-5million-recycled-beer-bottles.html#ixzz1VWu4qoWV ================= http://greenupgrader.com/4262/one-million-beer-bottles-later-and-its-a-buddhist-temple/ Thai monks from the Sisaket province have used over one million recycled glass bottle to construct their Buddhist temple. Mindfulness is at the center of the Buddhist discipline and the dedication and thoughtfulness required to build everything from the toilets to their crematorium from recycled bottles shows what creativity and elbow grease can accomplish. The Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple is about 400 miles northeast of Bangkok in the city of Khun Han close to the Cambodian border. Using Heineken bottles (green) and Chang Beer bottles (brown) the monks were able to clean up the local pollution and create a useful structure that will be a visual reminder to the scope of pollution and the potential we can make with limber minds. The water tower and tourist bathrooms are even made from beer bottle litter. The monks were able to have the local people bring them the building materials which beautifully reflect the Thai sun.