Locally the school is known as Druk Padma Karpo School as Padma means Lotus and Karpo means White in local dialect and is named after Mipham Pema Karpo (1527-1592), who is revered as a great scholar. In another interesting marketing move by Aamir Khan, autorickshaws are being used to promote his upcoming movie 3 Idiots. Aamir Khan had come back to the school in 2010 after a cloudburst had wreaked havoc in Leh. School premises has a “Rancho’s Cafe” as well. Interestingly, the school administration now calls it Rancho School as a nickname. The building wall where "Chatur" was given an electric shock by young students is now famous as Rancho Wall. Tourists started reaching the school searching for “Rancho School” or “3 Idiots School”. Superhit on the box office, the movie proved out to be a blessing for Ladakh tourism as thousands of people thronged Ladakh to see the high altitude cold deserts and lake as were seen in the movie. The movie was released in December 2009, showcasing the Druk White Lotus School and Pangong lake in the second half of the movie. Now a famous tourist spot, the school came in limelight after shooting of Bollywood super hit film 3 Idiots was held here in September 2008. The school rose to prominence after the climax scenes of 3 Idiots Bollywood movie were shot in the school.
Rancho’s School (Druk Padma Karpo School or Druk White Lotus School), which is also known as 3 Idiots School, is a Buddhist cultural school located in Shey village, close to Shey palace and monastery, on Leh-Manali highway, in Ladakh, India.