During the night of 5/6th August 2010 devastating mudslides hit the Leh and Shey areas of The Indus valley. One of these mudslides swept through the school depositing up to 1.5m of mud, boulders and debris across a large part of the campus. All the residential students and staff escaped across a raging torrent of mud in the pitch dark of the night.

In the following days the devastation was recorded in these photographs.

During the first few weeks following the mud and rock slide, the school received immediate help from many volunteers. The Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) sent a team of around 50 workers for three weeks to dig mud out of the buildings which was a tremendous help.

During this time the school received a visit from the Bollywood star Mr Aamir Khan, who filmed part of the hit film ”3 Idiots” at the school two years previously. Mr Khan was the guest of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, the school's founder. This visit helped to cheer spirits amongst the devastation.

Oxfam kindly provided emergency latrines. Médecins Sans Frontières offered counselling to the staff and pupils.

Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB Excavators kindly donated a JCB to the school in Septemebr 2010 at the request of Drukpa Trust in the UK. The JCB has already been extremely useful in clearing rocks and debris from the school campus and is now being used to create a ditch, wall and earth mound protection.

A set of Ventilated-Improved-Pit Latrines - that use no water - were being built last year and now in use. 

IT-Classroom in use following completion.

Two more Secondary School classrooms were built this year, the carpenters preparing all the timbers near the woodstore.

This week in the nursery we have been continuing with the ever expanding watering regime. Tsetan and I have continued with our quest for more vegetables to plant.

The landscape team has been building wigwams from old willow stems for planting up beans as well as planting still more veg into the bays.

Rigzin and I finally spent a day together to get the willow arch into the ground in the Playground with the help of the house mothers and some drop in assist from some of the labourers. It's not the prettiest arch in the world but it is currently alive and well. It's a little late in the season but the willow had been stored in water and had roots sprouting from the stems so I am hopeful that it will take with appropriate irrigation.

We have artichokes forming from last year which is rather exciting. It's a new vegetable for the people here so I might suggest a cook up one lunchtime.

The infants made an impromptu visit to the nursery on Tuesday morning and I showed them around, which was fun.

It was a sheer high spirited “spectacle” to witness the football team of DPKS lift and bag all four categories of the week long inter-school tournament boys & girls under/ 13 and under 16 segments sponsored and organized by SUNFEAST ,India and supported by District Youth Service and Sports Dept. The players displayed unimaginable feat of sportsmanship and swept the audiences off their feet and also nearly all the medallions, trophies and cheque prizes for the categories below;
1. Under / 13 Boys ,Winner
2. Under/ 16 girls, Winner
3. Best Goalkeeper- Stanzin Namdol
4. Top Scorer –Dorjey Tsering
5. Best Goal keeper, girls - Thinlay Angmo
6. Best Goal keeper, under/ 16- Stanzin Sonam
The school offers heartiest congratulations ! to each player of the teams and wishes them constant success in this field. Well done & Bravo !!

In the Lap of mother Nature “ NCF Camp “- 2019’

As an ANNUAL event , NCF ( Nature Conservation Foundation ) is one of the most awaited outdoor learning experiences on the school calendar. The two days into the nature prog is a compact experiential learning for the young students and helps them to learn and know more closely of the unique native flora and fauna of Ladakh. This year around 49 students and two Subject teachers attended this prog in the Hamlet called Khatpu, Rong and the students were overwhelmed with this enriching experience.
We thank and applaud NCF and their team members for outsourcing this very beneficial and much wanted prog to all the schools. Kudos !! to the NCF team.

The White Lotus Expo brought in showers of fun, frolic, colour, laughter and ultimate festivity. Delightful were the different eateries, games station, haunted places , ice cream counters, snack stop and so of course not to forget our most popular "GALA SHOW". This year our trailblazer stall was the new entry called "CHANSA" meaning Ladakhi Kitchen. The day and the event lived up to its motto and essence truly as huge swarm of people came to be a part of WHITE LOTUS EXPO: "Connecting School to the community". It was an enamouring and captivating day!

DPKS - Played HOST to the visiting 25 students and teachers headed by the Deputy Education Director NDMC school, New Delhi under a school exchange Prog. This is a break through Exchange Prog for the students and teachers of this Institution of the capital powered by the Prime Minister's "Ek Bharat : Shraysth Bharat" initiative . The prog of three hours was highly substantial and ultra interactive for the host students as well as the guest students. The Dragonites proudly and gracefully presented the Ladakhi culture and forwarded the school in the most presentable manner !

2015 saw a new laundry being built and the dining hall and kitchen extension being built.

The following year, 2016, the dining hall latrines were completed and a lot of granite walling completed around the classroom mandala marking-out the shape of the mandala.

It was around this time that the latent effect of the 2010 mudslide was discovered. Following an in-depth structural survey carried out by timber and seismic experts it was revealed that there was latent severe mud damage to the base of structural timber support columns.
The 2010 mudslide had swept through the campus depositing mud in the classrooms up to 1.5 metres deep, residences were inundated with mud and the school grounds bore the brunt of rivers of mud carrying huge boulders and debris.
Thankfully, all the school’s pupils and staff escaped unharmed and the award-winning granite buildings, designed by Arup, stood firm, unlike many local mudbrick houses that were swept away.

A protective mudslide defence wall around much of the school was built in 2011/12, and protected the school in a smaller flood event in 2015.
To secure the future resilience of the school buildings and the subsequent safety of both children and staff, a multi- year programme of work was put in place. This is to replace the affected timbers and upgrade the seismic protection of the school buildings to meet the most up to date safety specifications.  It is envisaged that in the event of future earthquakes or severe mudslides in the area, the upgraded buildings will also serve to provide a vital place of refuge for the local community.

Edwin Gruber’s cycle pilgrimage in support of the school, 5-30th September 2019

Sixty-nine-year-old retired teacher Edwin Gruber, a dedicated supporter of the Druk Padma Karpo School, set himself the challenge of pedalling 2,500 kilometres through France in 25 days as a sponsored event for the school and made a blog of his experiences and reflections.

Edwin set off from the Channel coast and followed ancient pilgrimage routes via the Atlantic Coast and the foothills of the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean. Edwin channelled his passion for education into purposeful action. Edwin invited people to sponsor him for each metre of ascent along his route, which was over 15,000 metres, or for the whole trip.

Edwin first visited the school in 2001, a few months before it opened, and was enthusiastic about its educational aims and philosophy. He took four groups of pupils from St Christopher School in Letchworth, where he taught, to Ladakh, on each occasion supporting the school educationally and financially, and he has organised fundraising events while working as a teacher. He was looking forward to the cycle challenge and hoped it would provide an opportunity to actively support the school again. Edwin said of his cycle pilgrimage “Like in life, the actual journey is more important than any final destination”.

Read Edwin's blog of experiences and reflections here

Please help Edwin reach his fundraising target by making a donation (with "Edwin" as the reference). Thank you so much.