Phunsukh wangdu biography of michael

Indian engineer, innovator and education reformist

This article is about the engineer and inventor. For the Indian Army officer of the same name, see Sonam Wangchuk.

Sonam Wangchuk
Wangchuk in
Born	() 1 September (age&#;58) Alchi, Jammu and Kashmir (now in Ladakh, India)
Education	(Mechanical Engineering) DSA (Earthen Architecture)
Alma&#;mater
Occupation(s)	Engineer, educator
Organization	Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh
Known&#;for	Ice Stupa, SECMOL, Ladags Melong, Operation New Hope
Parents	Sonam Wangyal (father) Tsering Wangmo (mother)
Awards	Global Award for Sustainable Architecture ()[1] Fred M. Packard Award () [2] Rolex Awards for Enterprise ()[3] Real Heroes Award () Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship ()[4] Ramon Magsaysay Award ()[4]

Sonam Wangchuk (born 1 September ) is an Indian engineer, innovator and education reformist.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} He is the founding-director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), which was founded in by a group of students who had been in his own words, the 'victims' of an alien education system foisted on Ladakh.^[11][12] He is also known for designing the SECMOL campus that runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating.^[13][14][15]

Wangchuk was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope in , a collaboration of government, village communities and the civil society to bring reforms in the government school system.^[16] He invented the Ice Stupa technique that creates artificial glaciers, used for storing winter water in the form of a cone-shaped ice heap.^[17][18][19]

Early life

Wangchuk was born in in near Alchi in the Leh district of Ladakh.

He was not enrolled in a school until the age of 9, as there were not any schools in his village. His mother taught him all the basics in his own mother tongue until that age.^[20][16] At the age of 9, he was taken to Srinagar and enrolled in a school in Srinagar. Since he looked different compared to the other students, he would get addressed in a language that he did not understand, due to which his lack of responsiveness was mistaken for him being stupid.

He recalls this period as the darkest part of his life. Unable to bear the treatment, in he escaped alone to Delhi where he pleaded his case to the school principal at Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya.^[3]

Wangchuk completed his in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Srinagar (then REC Srinagar) in ^{[21][failed verification]} Due to differences with his father over the choice of engineering stream, he had to finance his own education.

He also went for two years of higher studies in Earthen Architecture at Craterre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France, in ^[22]

Career

In , after his graduation, Wangchuk (with his brother and five peers) started Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). After experimenting with school reforms in government high school at Saspol, SECMOL launched Operation New Hope in collaboration with the government education department and the village population.^[16][4][6]

From June until August , Wangchuk also founded and worked as the editor of Ladakh's only print magazine Ladags Melong^[23][4] In , he was appointed to be an advisor for the education in the Hill Council Government.^[24] In , together with other NGO heads, he founded Ladakh Voluntary Network (LVN), a network of Ladakhi NGOs, and served in its executive committee as the secretary till He was appointed to the Drafting Committee of the Ladakh Hill Council Government’s Vision Document Ladakh and entrusted with the formulation of the policy on Education and Tourism in ^[25] The document was formally launched by Dr.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India in In , Wangchuk was appointed as a member in the National Governing Council for Elementary Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.^[25]

From to , Wangchuk worked as an education advisor for MS, a Danish NGO working to support the Ministry of Education for education reforms.^[26]

In late , Wangchuk invented and built a prototype of the Ice Stupa which is an artificial glacier that stores the wasting stream waters during the winters in the form of giant ice cones or stupas, and releases the water during late spring as they start melting, which is the perfect time when the farmers need water.^[27] He was appointed to the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education in In , he was appointed to the Expert panel for framing the J&K State Education Policy and Vision Document.

Since , Sonam has started working on establishing Himalayan Institute of Alternatives. He is concerned about how most of the Universities, especially those in the mountains have become irrelevant to realities of life.^[28]

In , Wangchuk initiated a project called FarmStays Ladakh, which provides tourists to stay with local families of Ladakh, run by mothers and middle-aged women.

The project was officially inaugurated by Chetsang Rinpoche on 18 June ^[29]

Innovations

Wangchuk has been helping in designing and overseeing the construction of several passive solar mud buildings in mountain regions like Ladakh, Sikkim and in Nepal so that energy savings principles are implemented on a larger scale.

Even in Celsius winters, his solar-powered school, built with the rammed earth, keeps the students warm.^[12][30][31]

Led by Wangchuk, SECMOL has won the International Terra Award for the best building in July at the 12th World Congress on Earthen Architecture in Lyon, France.^[32] The rammed earth 'Big Building', located at SECMOL.

The campus was built using simple, low-cost traditional techniques on principles of passive solar architecture.^[12] The building comprises a big solar-heated teaching hall, along with several rooms for the students and other classrooms.^[20]

Ice Stupa

Main article: Ice Stupa

In January , Wangchuk started a project called the Ice Stupa.

His aim was to find a solution to the water crisis being faced by the farmers of Ladakh in the critical planting months of April and May before the natural glacial melt waters start flowing. By the end of February in , they had successfully built a two-storey prototype of an ice stupa which could store roughly , litres of winter stream water which nobody wanted at the time.^{[33][16][34][35]}

In , when Ladakh faced a crisis due to a landslide which blocked the Phugtal river in Zanskar and caused formation of 15&#;km long lake which became a huge threat for the downstream population, Wangchuk proposed to use a siphon technique to drain the lake and water jet erosion to safely cut the edges instead of blasting the lake as was being planned.

However, his advice was ignored and blasting work was carried on. On 7 May , the lake finally burst into flash flood which destroyed 12 bridges and many fields.^[36][37][38]

In , Wangchuk started applying the Ice Stupa technique for disaster mitigation at high altitude glacier lakes.

He was invited by the Government of Sikkim to apply siphon technique for another dangerous lake in their state. In September , he led a three-week expedition to the South Lhonak Lake in North-West Sikkim, which had been declared dangerous for the last few years.^[39] His team camped for two weeks at the lake, amidst rain and snow, installing the first phase of a siphoning system to drain the lake to a safer level until other measures were taken up.^[40][41]

In late , the idea started gaining traction from the authorities in the Swiss Alps.

Wangchuk was invited by the president of Pontresina, a municipality in the Engadine valley, Switzerland to build Ice Stupas to add to their winter tourism attractions.^[42] In October , Wangchuk and his team went to the Swiss Alps and started building the first Ice Stupa of Europe, together with the Swiss partners.^[43][44][45]

In February , a group of young local sculptors and artists from Ladakh built an actual feet high ice stupa.

The wondrous sculpture is made entirely of ice and it took them 25 days of hard work and dedication to complete the project. As the stupa was housed inside another giant ice tower (ice stupa artificial glacier), it was made in very low temperature of around degrees Celsius.^[46]

Mobile Solar-Powered Tents

In February , Wangchuk developed solar-powered tents for the Indian army.

Each tent can accommodate around 10 soldiers. According to Wangchk, he came up with this innovation when he learned that around 50, Indian soldiers were working in harsh weather conditions in high-altitude areas.^[47][48] This invention traps the heat energy during the daytime and utilizes this energy to keep the tent warm during night.^[49]

Politics

In , on repeated requests from students community of Ladakh, Wangchuk helped launch the New Ladakh Movement (NLM), a social campaign and Ladakh's version of Green Party^[50] with the aim of working for sustainable education, environment and economy.^[51] It also aimed at uniting all local political leaders under one banner for the growth and development of Ladakh.^[52] Eventually, the members decided to make it into a non-political social movement.

Boycott of Chinese products

In June , in response to the India-China border skirmishes, Sonam Wangchuk appealed to Indians to use "wallet power" and boycott Chinese products.^[53] This appeal was covered by major media houses and supported by various celebrities.^[53][54] Following the Galwan Valley clash on 15 June , there were calls across India to boycott Chinese goods.^[55][56]

Ladakh autonomy protest

On 26 January , to highlight the effects of climate change on the fragile ecosystem of Ladakh and to demand its protection under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Wangchuk attempted to go on a fast at the Khardungla pass.

However, the authorities prevented him from going to Khardungla by putting him under house arrest, restricting his movement, as well as restricting people from visiting him. The police denied the charges, stating that he had not been given permission to enter Khardung La pass, citing temperatures being unsuitable for the fast, at less than °C.^[57] They also detained a few of his students supporting him from the HIAL campus.

Phunsukh wangdu biography of michael Share This Article. Seshan Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel V. Early life [ edit ]. Powered by solar panels, this technology brings fast internet to remote areas in Ladakh, benefiting not only schools but also businesses and tourism.

Wangchuk continued to voice his protest and fasting from the HIAL campus.

In March , he started a fast-unto-death to press for his demand for constitutional safeguards for the Union Territory and protection of Ladakh from industrial and mining lobbies.^[58] He also began a day Climate Fast hunger strike for giving statehood to Union Territory Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule.^[59][60]

On 30 September , during his walk by foot from Ladakh to Delhi for their demands, Wangchuk and his supporters were detained by Delhi Police at the Singhu border and were released on 2 October ^[61] In Delhi, they have announced to go on an indefinite hunger strike if they would not be allowed to meet either Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu or Union Home Minister Amit Shah to address their demand of including Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

In popular culture

Wangchuk came into the spotlight in , when his story inspired Aamir Khan's character Phunsukh Wangdu in the film 3 Idiots directed by Rajkumar Hirani.^[23] He has been referred as "The real life Phunsukh Wangdu".^[3] However he says that he is not Phunsukh Wangdu.^[62][63]

Awards

References

External links