Sonam Wangchuk | The man from the mountains

Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable mountain pass at a height of 17,582 feet in India’s youngest Union Territory of Ladakh, hit the headlines for a different reason on Republic Day this year. The move by engineer-turned-innovator Sonam Wangchuk, 51, to organise a rare five-day climate fast at Khardung La, 40 km from Leh, has thrown a major challenge to the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration as well as the Centre on the demand of granting special status to Ladakh. However, Mr. Wangchuk’s unconventional but innovative school, the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, had stark similarities with Wangdu’s school in the movie, with indigenous technology making lighting, cooking, and even heating running on solar energy. Alarmed by the impact of climate change on Ladakh, which is witnessing receding glaciers that feed the Indus river, Mr. Wangchuk on January 21 proposed to hold a five-day fast at Khardung La, where temperature dips to minus-40 degrees Celsius at night, to attract the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the policies pursued by the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration in Ladakh. A day after he ended his fast on January 26, Ladakh witnessed a spectacle at Polo Ground, Leh, where crowds, who walked long distances to see him, chanted, “We want Sixth Schedule.” Special prayers were held in Buddhist Viharas and other religious places for Mr. Wangchuk’s safety during fasting.