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.

The Construction Manager, Angdus, and his teams spent the months before the harsh winter set-in repairing and replacing the broken doors and windows that the mud and rocks had crashed into. Where the mud had been deposited, up to 1-1.5 m deep inside rooms, the lower sections of interior walls, made of mudbricks, had to be removed as the moisture from the mud caused them to deteriorate.

While classrooms were unusable, some lessons were held in tents. Gradually the classrooms were ready for temporary use without furniture.

Apart from the two science laboratories, classrooms and offices have wooden floors and there was concern that the floors might be ruined and need replacing - timber costs are high. Once the mud had been dug out, the floors were cleaned and left to thoroughly dry over the winter for review in the spring.