Art

and
Maths
of
Pure maths
is the poetry
of logical
ideas.
-Albert Einstein
Prayer Wheel
All over Ladakh, especially in Leh Palace monasteries feature Tibetan Prayer Wheels,
embossed with the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra in Sanskrit. The wheels are beautiful
hollowed out cylinders, integral to Buddhist worship. When spun clockwise, it enables
the viewer to read the mantra.
The brainchild of Sonam Wangchuk
and Chewang Norphel, Ice Stupa is a
form of glacier grafting technique
that creates artificial glaciers during
winter and supplies for crops during
summer.
Since these ice stupas are conical in
shape with (one of) the least surface
area per volume exposed to the Sun,
they will take much longer to melt
than a flat glacier.
Pagoda
In Buddhism, pagoda is a
monument enshrining sacred
relics. Traditionally, pagodas have
an odd number of levels, with
a square base. The most common
type is five-story each
representing the five elements:
earth, w a t e r , f i r e , w i n d ,
and sky.
Mandala Art
In Buddhism, a mandala is a
symbolic picture of the
universe. It is painted on a wall
or table with colored sand.
Mandala in Sanskrit means
Geometric designs are made
through uniform divisions of
the circle. The design also
contains reflectional and
rotational symmetry. It also
includes proportioned
triangles, rectangles and spirals
often in the golden ratio.
Fractal in Glaciers: An Art of Nature
Fractals are geometric figures that
display repeating patterns. As
glaciers bifurcate, they show self-
similarity and become a fractal.
When a glacier is zoomed the same
pattern repeats over, and over.
 Ladakh: Door to Indian Mathematics
Ladakh is called the Crossroads of High Asia for its
important role in the Silk Route. The Silk Roads were
roads of commerce as well as of knowledge, facilitating
exchange of scientific and mathematical knowledge
between the West, Middle East, India and China. In
Baghdad, many philosophical and scientific texts in Greek,
Syriac, Pahlavi and Sanskrit, especially of ancient Greece
and the Indian Subcontinent, were translated into Arabic.