“All is well.” This dialogue is strongly influenced by the 2009 comedy/romance movie “3 Idiots”. The movie beautifully showcased the struggles of a student in building his/her career to provide for their family. Thanks to the holy existence of Rajkumar Hirani ji, who directed the masterpiece. But this fact was even unknown to me until I researched about the movie, and the current situation of Ladakh is being covered by this legend. This legend today is known as Sonam Wangchuk.
Biography of Sonam Wangchuk: Sonam Wangchuk, born on September 1, 1966, is an Indian engineer, innovator, and advocate for educational reform. He founded the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) in 1988, alongside fellow students who, as he describes, were adversely affected by an unfamiliar educational system imposed on Ladakh. Notably, Wangchuk designed the SECMOL campus to operate solely on solar power, eliminating the need for fossil fuels.
In 1994, Wangchuk played a pivotal role in launching Operation New Hope, a collaborative effort involving government entities, local communities, and civil society aimed at reforming the government school system. He is credited with inventing the Ice Stupa technique, which creates artificial glaciers for storing winter water in cone-shaped ice mounds.
Born near Alchi in the Leh district of Ladakh, Wangchuk did not attend school until the age of 9 due to the absence of educational facilities in his village. His early education was provided by his mother in their native language. However, when he was enrolled in a school in Srinagar at the age of 9, he faced challenges due to linguistic and cultural differences, leading to misunderstandings about his intelligence. This period was particularly difficult for him, prompting him to flee to Delhi in 1977, where he appealed his case to the principal of Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya.
Wangchuk obtained his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Srinagar (formerly REC Srinagar) in 1987. Due to disagreements with his father regarding his choice of engineering specialization, he had to fund his own education. Additionally, he pursued two years of advanced studies in Earthen Architecture at the Craterre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France, in 2011.
After graduating in 1988, Wangchuk, along with his brother and five associates, established the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). Following initial experiments with educational reforms in a government high school in Saspol, SECMOL initiated Operation New Hope in collaboration with the government education department and local communities.
Between June 1993 and August 2005, Wangchuk served as the founder and editor of Ladakh’s sole print magazine, Ladags Melong. He was appointed as an education advisor for the Hill Council Government in 2001. In 2002, he co-founded the Ladakh Voluntary Network (LVN) with other NGO leaders, holding the position of secretary in its executive committee until 2005. Wangchuk also contributed to the drafting of the Ladakh Hill Council Government’s Vision Document Ladakh 2025, particularly focusing on education and tourism policies. His involvement in educational initiatives extended to his appointment as a member of the National Governing Council for Elementary Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, in 2005.
Innovations by Wangchuk: In late 2013, Wangchuk conceived and constructed a prototype of the Ice Stupa, an artificial glacier designed to store excess winter stream water in the form of large ice cones or stupas. This stored water is gradually released during late spring, coinciding with the critical planting season when farmers require irrigation. Simultaneously, in 2013, he was appointed to the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education. The following year, he became a member of the expert panel tasked with formulating the J&K State Education Policy and Vision Document. Since 2015, Wangchuk has been involved in establishing the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, driven by his concerns about the increasing irrelevance of many universities, particularly those situated in mountainous regions.
In 2016, Wangchuk launched FarmStays Ladakh, a project enabling tourists to stay with local families in Ladakh, managed primarily by mothers and middle-aged women. This initiative was officially inaugurated by Chetsang Rinpoche on June 18, 2016. Under Wangchuk’s leadership, SECMOL received the International Terra Award for the best building in July 2016 at the 12th World Congress on Earthen Architecture in Lyon, France, for their rammed earth ‘Big Building’ on campus, constructed using cost-effective traditional techniques and passive solar architecture principles.
The Ice Stupa project began in January 2014 with the aim of addressing Ladakh’s water scarcity issues during critical planting months. By February 2014, they successfully built a two-storey prototype capable of storing approximately 150,000 liters of winter stream water. Additionally, Wangchuk proposed innovative solutions for a crisis in Ladakh caused by a landslide blocking the Phugtal river in Zanskar in 2015. Despite his suggestions for safer techniques being disregarded, Wangchuk continued to apply the Ice Stupa technique for disaster mitigation in high altitude glacier lakes, notably in Sikkim.
In late 2016, Wangchuk’s concept gained traction in the Swiss Alps, leading to an invitation from the president of Pontresina, Switzerland, to construct Ice Stupas for their winter tourism attractions. Wangchuk and his team embarked on this endeavor, culminating in the construction of Europe’s first Ice Stupa in October 2016, marking another milestone in his innovative approach to water management.
In February 2018, a team of local artists and sculptors from Ladakh crafted a remarkable 10-feet high ice stupa entirely made of ice, overcoming extreme working conditions with temperatures reaching as low as -12 degrees Celsius. This project further showcased Wangchuk’s pioneering efforts in environmental sustainability and community engagement.