The month of NOV is conclusive for the year long academic session and brings the most awaited Final Proclamation of the results, harbinging excitable new classes, teachers, books and everything in the school to bring life at strength twice as usual. This year too students overall splendiferous performance academically swelled the hearts of teachers and parents with joy and pride. The students were certified for their conspicuous virtues followed by distinction of the most progressive students of each class and of course the WISDOM house swept the Running Trophy and 10000/rs cash prize for the” Best House of the year” leaving all yearning for the next one in the advancing year. This red lettered day of DPKS was attended by the Deputy Chairman accompanied by the new members SMC and throng of parents.

Life changing Mantra! BUY the rumours SELL that facts!!

It’s a massive happiness to witness the young students of 4th B pick up such time needed, valuable Universal message and gospel to really and truly BUY the rumours and SELL the facts! The students consciously understanding this responsibility and the essence of their finely chosen topic expressed their fear and concern about how casual gossip mongering can be poisonous and obnoxious in every sphere of human existence. The students with the complete guidance of their class teacher most skillfully and appealingly transmitted their message of the brutality of rumours and how it is most apt and virtuous to not just abstain from rumours but from the sources of rumour mongering. They intensely propagated positive thought and positive speech….resulting in positive action!! Well done and cheers to the teachers and students of std 4th B ….. You were inspirational!

Each Eco-Shower building will have a high capacity evacuated glass tube solar water heater feeding water into shower cubicles and to taps where students will be able to draw warm water for washing. The building is heated passively by a trombe wall and ventilated via high level windows. The trombe wall has an outer timber framed glazed screen, with an inner mud brick wall. This system allows warm air to be trapped in the cavity, and released into the main space through radiation and via opening high level windows set into the mudbrick wall.

Eco-Shower building foundations and completed building:

In 2017 the Seismic Upgrade & Mudslide Repair programme started on one of the eight residential buildings. Four Eco-Shower buildings will also be built, one in each residential courtyard during the refurbishment as part of the school's Health & Wellbeing programme.  

The seismic risk in the area of the school is now thought by international seismic experts to be ten-times greater than the original estimates of risk.  

This refurbishment programme will make buildings more resilient in an earthquake by:         

➔Reducing the weight of the heavy roofs.

➔Tying all elements together, so that the building works as one.

➔Increasing the number and strength of the walls and bracing systems.

➔Enabling the walls and bracing to absorb energy.

The repair work involves replacing rotten columns and isolating columns from the ground to prevent future rot.

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.

At the beginning of March 2011, the school resumed after the two and a half month winter break.

Thankfully the wooden floors have survived and have recently been sanded and re-varnished.

In the aftermath of the mudslide disaster, 78 displaced children who had lost their homes or a parent, were taken in by the school as residential pupils. This has left the school with the need for additional classroom and residential accommodation in addition to the planned expansion of the school.

Of paramount importance is to build a defensive structure to protect the school from future similar mud or rock slide events. A structural engineer from Arup, the architects and engineers of the school, is spending four months at the school working with the construction manager during the summer construction programme.

The landscape of the whole school site needs a lot of work because the resulting ground level is 1-1.5m higher than it used to be in many places.

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.

Before the school closed for the long winter break, lost equipment, resources and some furniture was replaced and the residential dormitories re-equipped using donated funds.

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.