Leh school to raze 3 Idiots- inspired wall, bans tourists

Leh: The Druk Padma Karpo School here, which shot to fame after it featured in the Aamir Khanstarrer 3 Idiots, has decided to raze the “Rancho Wall” and ban entry of tourists as the authorities felt it was becoming a distraction for students.

The wall was shot in a scene when one of the characters, Chatur, tries to urinate on it and gets electrocuted by an ingenious invention of school children. The school later painted it as the ‘ Rancho Wall’ which became a picture spot for tourists.

“The movie gave a lot of publicity to the school and it became a must visit for the tourists visiting Ladakh. However, we realised that the purpose of having a school in the area was getting defeated. Not only students were getting distracted by the tourists flocking the school but also everyday the campus was being reduced to a litter ground,” school principal Stanzin Kunzang told us.

“Inspired by the vision of His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, spiritual leader of Ladakh, the school aims to provide modern education for Ladakhi children — an education grounded in their own culture and which could prepare them to lead happy and productive lives,” Kunzang said Set up in 1998 by the Druk Padma Karpo Education Society, the school was partially destroyed in the flash floods and landslides that hit the town in 2010, but was renovated thereafter.

The school has won numerous awards for its architecture, including the best green architecture award, the most environmentfriendly building and also the best architecture design award.

At present, there are 719 students in the school, of which 281 are residential students from remote areas of Ladakh, while the rest are day scholars.

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