Gya Ice stupa. (90 kms from Leh towards east)
https://goo.gl/maps/g44QnJ2VTBQ2
Gya Village is the first Village settlement of Ladakh. The village is still not been influenced by the modernization and it still works on old sustainable lifestyles. The youth association Gya is one of the most active group in Ladakh and they provide platforms for upcoming youth of their village through workshops and education coaching camps.
This Ice stupa is been built by the youth of Gya and is India’s first Ice Cafe. The Ice stupa is made near a stream, although unlike others this Ice stupa won’t provide water for irrigation but they are planning to use this water for plantation.
This winter Gya has been main attraction for winter destination for both locals and outsiders as an alternative to Phyang ice stupa last year.
NOTES
NAME – NAWANG PHUNTSOG
AGE – 27 yrs
OCCUPATION – ELECTRICTION
” I heard about the ice stupa competition and thought would be nice to buid ice stupa. I told my friends about the competition and not many showed interest in it. So finally we three agreed to make ice stupa. I visited Phyang ice stupa last year and I have seen lots of people are visiting there, so I thought our ice stupa at Gya would be a tourist attraction in winter”
NAME – JIGMET TUNDUP
AGE – 32 yrs
OCCUPATION – FARMER
” Initially when i heard about the ice stupa making competition from my friends I got excited as i would get an opportunity to learn new work in winter.”
TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
The main challenge was to build the dome and we gathered all the information from others how they are making dome. We don’t want to our dome to be weak unsuccesful. Finally we built our dome with 20ft GI pipe and it was quite strong.
IDEA ABOUT ICE CAFE ?
There were lots of visitors at ice stupa and since Gya is quite far from Leh, they were asking about restaurants nearby. Finallly some people started asking about tea and snacks. Then one day bus full students manjushri school came to visit