Photo Source: National Geographic
Overheard at National Geographic kicked off the third season of the exploration podcast this week with a visit to northern India for a look at a remote region impacted by climate change. “The Towers of Ladakh” tells the story of how a folktale passed down through centuries helped modern day villages solve their water problems. It’s yet another example of how resourceful people can be in times of need. These incredible structures almost look like something out of the Disney film Frozen.
Host Peter Gwin interviews National Geographic Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao and Engineer Sonam Wangchuk about Ladakh, a village on the mountainous plateaus of northern India. It’s a cold desert landscape that has relied on melting glacier water to harvest crops, but the water is less predictable now and sometimes doesn’t come at all due to climate change. The interview begins with Arati Kumar-Rao, a writer and photographer who was sent there to do a story on Ice Stupas.
A stupa is a Buddhist structure that represents enlightenment and the people of Ladakh had a generational story about harvesting glaciers to help grow crops. That’s where Engineer Sonam Wangchuk comes in, who helped reform the failed education system in Ladakh in the late 1980’s. In his schools, the students learn how to solve problems, which led to this genius invention.
Using a mix of physics and geometry, students use a pipe to spray water in the air, which freezes as it falls, creating a strong ice stupa, a pyramid-like structure that will melt slowly into the spring when water is needed the most to grow barley, wheat, carrots, spinach, apricots, apples, and pears. Just like the stupas made of brick and mud, people congregate around the ice stupas to pray. They’ve built ice stupas as tall as 7-stories, which have lasted until August.
You can listen to this incredible story of overcoming the odds and read a transcript on the official website for the Overheard at National Geographic podcast.