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Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Rolex Awards Speaking Minds Satarupa Paul, Engineer-turned-educationist Sonam Wangchuk is changing the education landscape of Ladakh, one failed student at a time, Dec 08, 2016: The Hindustan Times

Sonam Wangchuk- The real life Phunsukh Wangdu of 3 Idiots
From: Satarupa Paul, Engineer-turned-educationist Sonam Wangchuk is changing the education landscape of Ladakh, one failed student at a time, Dec 08, 2016: The Hindustan Times

Wangchuk’s school has the distinction of taking failures from the system and making their lives there a learning experience in itself
From: Satarupa Paul, Engineer-turned-educationist Sonam Wangchuk is changing the education landscape of Ladakh, one failed student at a time, Dec 08, 2016: The Hindustan Times

Sonam Wangchuk born, near Alchi, in the Trans Himalayan region of Ladakh, India is an engineer, innovator, and an education reformist. He is the Founding Director of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) which was founded in 1988 by a group of students who had been in his own words, the ‘victims’ of an alien education system foisted on Ladakh. 
 Sonam spent the first seven years of his childhood with his mother in a remote Ladakhi village, climbing trees, helping her with housework, and learning to read and write Ladakhi. He feels that the opportunity to learn Ladakhi was one of the best things she provided, particularly since the schools he attended later did not teach the language.

In 1988, a year after graduating as an engineer, Sonam, with his brother and five peers, formed the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). Their first fundraising effort, a Ladakhi cultural show, proved to be a huge success. Until 1990 Sonam coached school students and offered vocational training courses to dropouts. Sonam had to get to the root of the problem, and the solution to that lay in localizing the system of elementary education. He did not think of building an alternate system because it would have resulted in a waste of resources. Besides, most of the children in Ladakh attended government-run schools.

In 1991 Sonam started his first intervention in the government school of Saspol with permission from the chief education officer of the region. The success of the model created popular demand for his training, and 33 villages came forward to adopt the model before the newly formed Hill Council adopted it as official policy.   When he saw people struggling to meet their basic water requirements in Ladakh, he came up with a solution of creating vertical ice stupas to store water for a longer time. The average stupa is 35 meters to 40 meters high and can store upto 16,000 cubic litres of water which is enough to irrigate 10 hectares of land. Read how Wangchuk plans to create 80-90 such stupas to solve all of Ladakh’s water troubles.

He became fascinated by mirrors and lenses after reading about them in his school textbooks, and then took a solar-energy study option during his engineering studies – which, in turn, triggered his interest in renewable energy. “And from there, I was completely into environmental issues,” he recalls. He later did a two-year specialization in Grenoble, France, studying earthen architecture.

Much of his career has focused on developing solutions to problems encountered by communities living at high altitudes such as education, climate-responsive housing and now access to water.

His journey into education reform began when he had to find a way to finance his engineering course and started teaching during his college holidays. “I started thinking about things that could make a real impact on people’s lives, mainly through meaningful education,” he says. “All these young Ladakhis – 95 per cent of them – were failing in the educational system owing mainly to their being a cultural and linguistic minority.”

In 1988, he co-founded SECMOL, the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, and slowly reduced the failure rate to 25 per cent; and then, in 1994, he led the establishment of a solar-powered, student-built, student-run alternative school where teenagers who still fail in the conventional education system get a second chance. It was at this school that the ice stupa and many such innovations were born.

Wangchuk’s interest in educational reform has resulted in his appointment to the Jammu and Kashmir State Education Advisory Committee, the Indian government’s National Governing Council for Elementary Education and several other similar assignments across South Asia.

Politics

Becoming a political provocateur/ As of 2025

Naseer.Ganai, Sep 27, 2025: The Times of India

Srinagar : Phunsukh Wangdu, protagonist of 2009 film 3 Idiots, would famously work his way out of trouble with ‘All izz well’. Ladakhi Sonam Wangchuk , said to be the inspiration behind the endearing character essayed by Aamir Khan, has since gained a reputation more as a political provocateur than a proponent of philosophical life hacks. 
Wangchuk, variously described as an innovator, activist and climate warrior, did not stumble into politics overnight.


Four months after abrogation of Article 370 in Aug 2019, he released a video thanking PM Modi for making Ladakh a UT, albeit with a veiled warning. “People here have started asking whether UT status was granted to exploit Ladakh’s vast resources, and whether our resources will be exploited the way China does in Tibet,” Wangchuk said, urging the Centre to safeguard the region under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. 


In Jan 2023, he announced a five-day climate fast at Khardung La, one of the world’s highest passes, where winter temperatures plunge to minus 40°C. The administration prevented him from reaching the site, forcing him to pitch tent in Leh instead. The protest, complete with political speeches, music, solidarity gatherings and anti-establishment rap, galvanised Wangchuk’s mission.


A year later, in Oct 2024, he ended another 16-day fast only after the MHA agreed to resume talks with Ladakhi organisations. After negotiations stalled, he launched a new 35-day hunger strike on Sept 10 this year, demanding statehood for Ladakh with Sixth Schedule safeguards.


Last Wednesday, he called off the fast after violent protests erupted across the region, leaving four dead and dozens hurt. 
Born in 1966 in a village near Leh, Wangchuk was homeschooled till he was nine. In 1975, after his father Sonam Wangyal became a minister in the then J&K govt, the family moved to Srinagar. He later studied engineering at NIT Srinagar and got another degree from CRATerre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France. 


In 1988, Wangchuk cofounded Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh to reform the education system. He argued that Ladakhi children, struggling with textbooks designed for other regions, were being unfairly labelled poor performers. 


Wangchuk’s activism and political discourse in Ladakh now run parallel. Roots of the present turmoil lie in 2020 Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council polls, when most political parties called for apoll boycott until Sixth Schedule protection was granted.

See also

Ice stupa

Sonam Wangchuk