From Ice Stupas To Education: Lesser-Known Facts About Sonam Wangchuk

Sonam Wangchuk is an Indian engineer, innovator, education reformer, and climate activist from Ladakh. A Padma Shri awardee, he is best known for creating Ice Stupas and inspiring sustainable, community-driven solutions.

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Even though Sonam's father was a famous politician in the former Jammu and Kashmir region, Wangchuk funded his own engineering degree at NIT Srinagar by tutoring and even fleeing to Delhi at the age of 11.

Sonam Wangchuk's inspiration is his father, Sonam Wangyal, who was a prominent leader. Besides being a prominent leader, he was also a messiah and a patriot. In 1984, he organised a successful hunger strike to demand Scheduled Tribe status for Ladakh.

Despite his work related to environmental and social issues, Wangchuk has a degree in medical engineering from NIT Srinagar, which he uses in unique experiments like solar energy and ice stupas.

Wangchuk and his team hold patents for several new innovations such as water conservation and new technologies developed at Sankol.

Sonam Wangchuk learned only Ladakhi from his mother for 9 years because there were no local schools in Ladakh at that time.

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Wangchuk developed the Ice Stupa technique, an artificial glacier that stores winter water for use during the dry farming season.