Sonam Wangchuk (engineer)

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

Sonam Wangchuk
Operation New Hope
Parents
  • Sonam Wangyal (father)
  • Tsering Wangmo (mother)
AwardsGlobal Award for Sustainable Architecture (2017)[1]
Fred M. Packard Award (2016) [2]
Rolex Awards for Enterprise (2016)[3]
Real Heroes Award (2008)
Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship (2002)[4]
Ramon Magsaysay Award (2018)[4]

Sonam Wangchuk (born 1 September 1966) is an Indian engineer, innovator and education reformist.

fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating.[13][14][15]

Wangchuk was instrumental in the launch of

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 1966 in near

Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya.[3]

Wangchuk completed his

National Institute of Technology Srinagar (then REC Srinagar) in 1987.[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 2011.[22]

Career

In 1988, after his graduation, Wangchuk (with his brother and five peers) started

Operation New Hope
in collaboration with the government education department and the village population.[16][4][6]

From June 1993 until August 2005, Wangchuk also founded and worked as the editor of

Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.[25]

From 2007 to 2010, Wangchuk worked as an education advisor for

Ministry of Education for education reforms.[26]

In late 2013, Wangchuk invented and built a prototype of the

Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education in 2013. In 2014, he was appointed to the Expert panel for framing the J&K State Education Policy and Vision Document. Since 2015, 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 2016, 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 2016.[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 -30 Celsius winters, his solar-powered school, built with the rammed earth, keeps the students warm.[12][30][31]

SECMOL campus

Led by Wangchuk,

SECMOL has won the International Terra Award for the best building in July 2016 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 2014, 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 2014, they had successfully built a two-storey prototype of an ice stupa which could store roughly 150,000 litres of winter stream water which nobody wanted at the time.[33][16][34][35]

In 2015, 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 2015, the lake finally burst into flash flood which destroyed 12 bridges and many fields.[36][37][38]

In 2016, 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 2016, 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 2016, the idea started gaining traction from the authorities in the

Engadine valley, Switzerland to build Ice Stupas to add to their winter tourism attractions.[42] In October 2016, 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 2018, a group of young local sculptors and artists from Ladakh built an actual 10-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 -12 degrees Celsius.[46]

Politics

In 2013, 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[47] with the aim of working for sustainable education, environment and economy.[48] It also aimed at uniting all local political leaders under one banner for the growth and development of Ladakh.[49] Eventually, the members decided to make it into a non-political social movement.

Boycott of Chinese products

In June 2020, in response to the

boycott Chinese goods.[52][53]

Ladakh autonomy protest

On 26 January 2023, 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 -40°C.[54] They also detained a few of his students supporting him from the HIAL campus. Wangchuk continued to voice his protest and fasting from the HIAL campus.

In March 2024, 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.[55] He also began a 21-day Climate Fast hunger strike for giving statehood to Union Territory Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule.[56][57]

In popular culture

Wangchuk came into the spotlight in 2009, when his story inspired

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.[58][59]

Awards

Year Title
2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award[60]
2018 Honorary D.Litt by Symbiosis International[61]
2018 Eminent Technologist of the Himalayan Region by IIT Mandi[62]
2017 Indians for Collective Action (ICA) Honor Award, San Francisco, CA [63]
2017 GQ Men of the Year Awards, Social Entrepreneur of the Year[64]
2017 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture[65]
2017 State Award for outstanding environmentalist by
J&K Govt.[66]
2016
Rolex Award for Enterprise[67]
2016 International Terra Award for best earth building[20]
2014 UNESCO Chair Earthen Architecture, by CRATerre France[68]
2008
CNN-IBN TV[69]
2004 The Green Teacher Award by Sanctuary Asia[70]
2002 Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship, by Ashoka USA[4]
2001 Man of the Year by The Week[71]
1996 Governor's Medal for educational reform in Jammu and Kashmir[72]

References

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  2. ^ "Packard Awardees". IUCN. 10 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Paul, Satarupa (8 December 2016). "Meet Sonam Wangchuk, the real life Phunsukh Wangdu of 3 Idiots". Hindustan Times.
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External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonam_Wangchuk_(engineer)&oldid=1218346261"