Ladakh is a trans-Himalayan mountain desert in the extreme north of India with villages located at 2,700m to 4,000m altitudes. The key to human settlement in this cold desert is the art of diverting water from the streams through meticulously built canals toward deserts to grow crops like barley, wheat, vegetables and trees like apricots, apples, willow and poplar. This winter after two years of experiments at SECMOL Alternative Indtitute the Pheyang Monastery near the institute will see the making of ice stupa from artificial glaciers which store this wasting winter water in the form of ice mountains that melt and feed the farms when water is most needed by the farmers. The idea is very simple and needs no pumps or power. Water piped from 60m upstream would easily rise close to 60m up from ground when it reaches the village.