Friday 5th August is the one year anniversary of the floods and mudflows that started just before midnight in 2010. Shops and restaurants in Leh and the surrounding areas are closed today in respect for those who died or lost their homes and loved ones.

Many schools have stayed open and to mark the occasion DWLS held a special assembly today. Prayers were held and Class 7B gave a presentation on the environment and geology of Ladakh.

Mr Karma Thargyil, Head of the Infant Section, then gave a short speech about the disaster and those whose lives it had affected.  Mr Thargyil lost his own house to the mud. The whole school observed two minutes of silence. Further prayers were said to conclude this special assembly.

Despite the serious effect this event had on the school and the Leh and Choglamsar areas, life appears to be back to normal with houses rebuilt and nearly all of the debris cleared away, however agricultural land covered with mud will take time to become fertile soil again. The school campus needs much landscaping work to be done and physical defences are being built to protect against possible future inundations.

Materials, equipment and furnishings that were lost at the school have mostly been replaced  but the school still urgently needs funds to replace the Montessori equipment (2 x classroom sets at 234,000 INR(Rps)/ US$5,200/ €3,700/ £3,300) and to re-stock the library with books to meet the school needs and CBSE requirements (450,000 INR(Rps)/ US$10,000/ €7,200/ £6,400) for a further 1500 books). Contact us for a list of examples of the novels required This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Students took part in the annual Tree Planting on the school campus.

Shravan Muralidhar is the guy from school who was always disinterested in the monotonous school schedule. Having done his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) specialising in PAINTING, he is now pursuing his M.Des in Visual Communication. He is here to experience ART the young way, the innocent way and the way tiny ones do it and basically getting the children into a new experience.

Sinja Hammer is 19 years old and just graduated from school in Germany with main courses in English and Economics. She will stay at the school for half a year, assisting the teachers in the infant section and in the English class. In cooperation with the Art teacher she will also help to redecorate some classrooms affected by the flood.  She will also be conducting the reading classes with the students.

Varun Saini is an alumnus of the Indian Naval Academy and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. After spending six years at the Indian Navy, he joined the corporate world and works as a consultant at Bain and Company (India). He is fond of travelling, reading and adventure sports. He is presently assisting the teachers in the Mathematics and Science department at the school.

It’s not often that the students of Druk School get to meet someone who has been on top of the world, literally. Hence, when Krushnaa Patil arrived at the school to talk about her mountaineering expeditions, she was greeted with a lot of anticipation and excitement. She was the youngest Indian women to summit Mount Everest in 2009, at the young age of 19. Later she summated the highest peak of every continent including Antarctica. She addressed the senior students of the school and showed them pictures from her various expeditions around the world. The children listened with rapt attention as she spoke of some of her adventures and the challenges that she faced as a climber. Krushnaa spoke of some of her ordeals while trying to find sponsors for her Mount Everest expedition. She also mentioned as to how the journey was a zero-impact one where all the team members carried down all the waste that they had generated, including biological waste. They carried tonnes of garbage down from Mount Everest. Following this inspiring narrative, she answered some of the questions that the children had about her adventures.

A second motivational talk was conducted by Varun Saini. A volunteer with the Druk School for over a month, he spoke to the seniors about MBA as a career. He told the children the various pros and cons of having an MBA degree along with the different job prospects after college. It wasn’t all work though; his presentation also gave the children a glimpse of college life at IIM Bangalore. The other part of his talk focused on a career in the armed forces. The students were told all about the different sections in the armed forces, and a career in the army both as an after school and an after college alternative.

A sponsored trek in Ladakh is being arranged by Peaks Foundation for a small group of women wishing to face a challenge in aid of the Druk White Lotus School. The Gulap Kangri Challenge, Ladakh, 10-19 September, 2011.

If this fantastic opportunity to walk in the Himalayan peaks is not for you, perhaps a friend of yours may be interested so do pass on the details, or perhaps you would prefer to sponsor one of the group and let them do the physical work!

For more details go to: http://www.peaksfoundation.org/our_adventures/1_peak_1_week_challenge/ladakh/

If you may be interested, please e-mail Peaks Foundation directly at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As part of the project Operation Sadbhavana, the Indian Army undertakes various campaigns to develop literacy, women empowerment, public health and relief and rehabilitation in Jammu & Kashmir. On the 25^th of March Mrs. Pari Balsara, wife of Core Commander of Operation Sadbhavana, and Colonel Rana from the CO 503 ASC Battalion arrived at the Druk Padma Karpo Institute to distribute blankets to the students from the flood affected regions of Ladakh. The event started at 11am and 58 blankets were given to the students. The event started off with a cultural programme where the students performed different songs as well as Ladakhi and Himachali dances. There were solo performances as well as group numbers. This was followed by the distribution of the blankets. Thus ended a day of goodwill.

The flash floods in August 2010 wreaked havoc on the computer room of Druk Padma Karpo School. The mud crept in and damaged all the computers installed there. However, things always have a way of bouncing back from a disaster. And so it happened with the Druk School too. A lot of the damage done by the floods was repaired. Further, new computers were installed in March, 2011. Now the new and improved computer room stands proudly on campus with 32 new computers!

The Druk Padma Karpo School celebrated the school's founder, His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa‘s, birth anniversary on 15 March, the 10^th day of the 1^st month according to the Tibetan calendar. The day started off with prayers along with a special Long Life prayer for His Holiness. Following that, each student offered a “khatak” (white  scarf) to His Holiness’ picture. Students from the 2^nd standard onwards participated in this ceremony. The students were then taken for a ceremonial round of the Naropa Photang monastery. A delicious treat of “halwa-puri” (sweets) and juice awaited the children once they came back to school. A documentary on the life of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa titled “My Life, My Wishes” was screened. The celebrations drew to a close with talks on His Holiness by staff and students.

Tsering Dolma of class S-9 writes a poetic account of her winter holdiay.

Ladakh is the land which is covered all around with the crowns of white sparkling glaciers and snow capped mountain where icy cold water from sparkling white glaciers take birth and flow singing and dancing. Most of the places are covered by snow in winter and make Ladakh a snow land. When the sun rises, all the places shine and show us a beautiful view and it seems that they are wishing us good morning with warmth and great pleasure. When it’s time to wake up a beautiful view takes our attention and that is the trees on which snow have been fall softly and the snow which is landed on the tree remains there for long time and when it melts with sun heat, its make us feel warm. The chirping of birds also take our view on them when the walk on the ground with noisy sounds remaining their footprints on snow landed ground and again flying above the snow landed land. After these beautiful nature wonders when I woke up and step my foot towards outside the cold weather touches my skin and makes me feel cold. The boots which I left outside was filled with snow and again mothers shout.

Although the breakfast time is the sweetest among all, a big bowl full of hot streaming, delicious smell of thukpa with many delicious varieties in a cold shrinking winter. Sitting near bukhari with the family members and having it. The more I ate the more I become hungry for it. After these things another honey movement comes and that is getting ready for tuition. When I get ready for tuition my friend would come to take me and together we go for tuition. At there all the students gather and throw snow on each other in cold weather. The girls make their own group and boys their own and enjoy throwing snow on each other wearing woolen clothes. At there no one spoils our mood until teacher comes. When teacher comes everyone becomes lazy and lazily we all go into our class and waits teacher to finish the lesson . After teacher finish lesson everyone comes running out from class as if we were kept there for many centuries. We shouts, sing, dance and play lots of games and sports. In winter the most exciting games for us is ice skating. While we are skating sometimes our leg would fall inside hole in ice where in return your boots would wet and makes us cry because of the cold pain we suffer.

The winter going outside with friends is also very pleasure. We would plan to go for shopping and we would roam all around the street and we would walk giggling and laughing holding our hands tightly so that we would feel comfortable and secure from cold weather. When we walk along the street sometimes we slip and the others laugh as a donkey and parrots. Although it is very funny to do these things in winter. The winter days goes very quickly and remind us school. When our precious winter movements comes to end we feel very bore because it’s time to go for school and our funny days ends there. We have to complete our works and we have to give all our precious times in books. No exciting movement knocks our door and our happy days. We spend our summer in memory of winter days and waits winter to comes and pray for remain it for longer time with another spicy and funny days.