Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk hit headlines today after being arrested by police in Leh, just two days after violent protests demanding statehood for Ladakh and extension of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution left several people dead and nearly 90 others injured.

Early life 

Born in 1966 near Alchi in the Leh district of Ladakh, Wangchuk spent his childhood in a village without schools. 

Until the age of nine, he received no formal education. His mother, however, ensured he learned the basics at home in their native language.

In 1975, following his father’s election to the Jammu and Kashmir Government, Wangchuk was enrolled in a Srinagar school. But he faced alienation, unable to understand the language spoken by classmates, his silence was misread as lack of intelligence. 

Calling it the darkest period of his life, Wangchuk eventually ran away in 1977 to Delhi, where he persuaded the principal of Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) to admit him.

Engineering education, global learning

After completing school, Wangchuk joined the National Institute of Technology (then REC) Srinagar, earning a BTech in Mechanical Engineering in 1987. 

A dispute with his father over the choice of discipline meant he had to finance his own education, instilling a strong sense of independence.

In 1988, Wangchuk founded the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), a reform initiative to address systemic gaps in education. 

His work later took him to France, where in 2011 he studied Earthen Architecture at the Craterre School of Architecture, Grenoble. By 2013, he was serving on the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education.

Recognition and inspiration

Wangchuk’s story reached national fame in 2009, when it inspired Aamir Khan’s character Phunsukh Wangdu in the film 3 Idiots. 

Since then, he has been widely referred to as the “real-life Phunsukh Wangdu,” admired for his innovative and grassroots approach to education and climate activism.