Students from Alton College, England, recently raised and donated £1,300 towards a project they will complete at Druk White Lotus School. The World Challenge students will travel to Ladakh and be at the school in mid-July. They will help with implementation of the school’s new landscaping plan by constructing a mudbrick greenhouse and some local terracing. The picture shows group leader, Ivan Bicknell, presenting a cheque to Drukpa Trust’s Annie Smith.

On March 18th 2007, Ushma Vaidya braved the cold spring morning to run in the Ironbridge Half Marathon to raise money for the Druk White Lotus School. Ushma said afterwards: “This was one of the most difficult races that I have ever run. This was due to the poor weather conditions I had to run in. It was hailing, raining and snowing. It was freezing cold with such cold gustily winds that I really can’t believe myself that I finished the race. But I just thought about all those children at Druk White Lotus School and thought I have to do it for them. I would like to go to Ladakh and meet all the children at the school.

All 13 students got there safely. There was a quick change of plan to build two adventure playgrounds for the residential children, rather than a greenhouse, and here is what they achieved:

International supporters helped to fill eight trunks with children’s books, clothes and other goodies for the school. JetAirways kindly transported the trunks from London to Leh at their own expense, and local JetAirways staff recently handed the trunks over to the School Principal, Maureen Songhurst.

Kontentreal, an American television production company recently created an award winning series of programs about sustainable architecture for the PBS system in the USA. The series was such a success that they were asked to produce a few more episodes - one of these episodes “Druk White Lotus School - Ladakh,” (narrated by Brad Pitt, and directed by Tad Fettig) is receiving its world premiere at a public event sponsored by Autodesk at The Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) in New York at 1PM on December 19th.

The RMA is at:

150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Telephone: 212-620-5000 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: http://www.rmanyc.org/calendar/calendar.cfm

The new school year began on the 1st November 2007 - Druk White Lotus School now has 398 students, of whom 113 are residential students from remote areas of Ladakh. They are cared for by 20 Ladakhi and Tibetan teachers plus 21 support staff. Sarla Chhewang took these photos on her trip to find needy children in remote area of Karnak.

A lot of the remote area children are sponsored by the students of His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa. Here are some of the latest recipients.

Stanzin (top) joined the Nursery, whilst Tsewang joined the Upper Kindergarten.

The Druk Foundation in the USA organised a gala event at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. The evening focussed on the art of the Drukpa lineage and included a conversation between His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa and Jeff Watt, Curator of the Rubin Museum, before an invited audience. This was followed by a screening of a documentary entitled ‘Druk White Lotus School - Ladakh’ produced by New York film company kontentreal and sponsored by Autodesk.

His Holiness with Karena Albers and Tad Fettig (Executive Producers from the film company)

Following a screening of the film, His Holiness took part in a Q&A with Jeff Watt, Rubin Museum Curator, together with Jonathan Rose (chief architect), Tad Fettig (film executive producer) and Philip Cornwell (trustee).

In Europe a few days later, the annual retreat with the Gyalwang Drukpa was underway at Pel Drukpay Tcheutsok, the centre in Plouray, France. As ever, the Drukpa Trust and a dedicated crew of volunteers kept a display open throughout, fundraising for equipment for the Science Laboratoty. Always trying to have fun with the theme, this time donors could buy parts of the human skeleton 1€ buying a tooth and 100€ represented by a skull. By the end of the retreat, over two whole “skeletons” had been bought.

We have a new volunteer at the school, Lakshmi will be teaching English and IT. She has agreed to send us updates from Ladakh. She has just left to go to the school and sent us this short piece to introduce herself.

“As I sit and contemplate my upcoming stay and volunteer position at the Druk Padma Karpo School, I have many doubts, worries and questions. Despite these, I am looking forward to Leh.

My father grew up in Kerala, on the west side of the most southern state of the Indian subcontinent, a coastal sliver of a state that many people have never heard of before. I am half Indian and half American and, since I was born and raised in the U.S., I have been in India for the past 2 months, learning about my heritage and visiting family. I am going to Leh not only because I have heard it is beautiful and because there is a school with a different mission regarding education (than the standard Indian government schools), and they are willing to take on volunteers, but because I would like to learn more about all of India.

The beginning of my stay in Leh will mark the halfway point of my travels from the U.S., and instead of being a tourist, traveler, or some combination thereof, I am looking forward to being in one place for an extended period of time, while also having a purpose. I am looking forward to learning more about Buddhism and meeting children who can speak more languages than I ever dreamed would be possible. I’m also looking forward to connecting on a level that goes beyond linguistic and cultural barriers.

Despite my reservations: Will I be warm enough? Will I be lonely? Will I be able to teach anything of substance? Will they understand me? Will I understand them? Will they like me? In any new place or situation the truth is I don’t really know what to expect, and ultimately, I am going to DPKS not only to teach, but to learn what it means to be Indian, while also being Tibetan, Ladakhi and all the other ethnicities, regions and religions one may identify with. I am going to gain a sense of the many differences between and among Indians, help out as much as possible, and perhaps discover my own Indian-ness.”

Druk White Lotus School has two modest solar installations, which have been used for some years mainly to pump groundwater for drinking, washing and irrigation. In 2008, we plan to implement the next stage of our renewable energy plan in order to provide clean energy to run computers and other equipment. The investment will be co-financed by carbon offset funds provided by Arup Associates.

Mike Beaven, Principal of Arup Associates said:

“As a global design and business consulting firm, Arup is at the forefront of designing for a low carbon economy. Our unified design practice, Arup Associates, is itself carbon neutral. We minimise the carbon footprint of our operations first, and then offset any residual amount. The Principals recently decided to carry out the offset by investing directly in renewable energy at the award-winning Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh, India. Arup Associates staff designed the system and will supervise its installation and commissioning, planned for July-August 2008. In this way, we at Arup Associates are applying our skills and resources to directly offset our carbon impacts, and to learn the practicalities of implementing renewable technologies in challenging circumstances.”

Our new volunteer, Lakshmi, who went to Ladakh to teach IT and English, shares her reflections and experience at the school.

Reflection: Expectations reconciled with reality

My initial expectations of coming here were based on: A PBS special (narrated by Brad Pitt) focusing on the school’s sustainablearchitecture, a small brochure on the school and the school’s website. As a result, my impressions thus far have changed from what I expected prior to my arrival of Druk Padma Karpo School, as I have come to know it in Ladakh.

The PBS documentary showed absolutely stunning views of lush green mountains and barren dirt valleys. It also showed a school, at times devoid of students, and clean simple buildings which looked nearly brand-new. The mountains of Ladakh are breathtaking, and not just because the acclimatization process was difficult at first. But the mountains I now see covered with snow and it is hard to believe they ever turn green in the summer time. The school I have been seeing six-days a week for almost the past month is never without at least a handful of students running about, and though the buildings are indeed clean, they are also lived in.

The students in the brochure are shown with their uniforms. Light blue shirt, black trousers, and grey hat, but on the first glance I failed to notice the winter uniform, complete with a traditional Buddhist dress which looks like a full-length coat which is worn over numerous pairs of trousers, shirts and sweaters to keep children warm in with the winter chill still in the air.

Finally, the existence of a website would imply to some that internet access is readily available. While the Principal’s office at one point in time had an (irascible/mercurial) connection that occasionally took 2-3 hours to ‘dial-up,’ the school does not, at the moment have an internet connection, and the computers (all 14 of them) are shared among the 400 and some odd students. Though there is internet in Leh, perhaps what surprised me most is the lack of connection I felt to the outside world, especially through my personal favorite form of news: the newspaper. I was so baffled by the fact that the closest newspaper, The Hindustan Times comes 2-3 days late (if you are lucky), that I wondered momentarily how people knew to strike, after violence in Tibet. I had, of course, momentarily forgotten about TV and radio media, as well as the ever-increasing usage of mobile phones.

Overall, the school and my life here is both none of what I expected and all of what I had wanted.

Lakshmi Eassey
March 29, 2008