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An important symbol of religious art, a mani heap is formed from hundreds and thousands of stones or slates carved with copious information about the religion, culture, history, art and lifestyle of the Tibetan people. Mani heaps are scattered almost everywhere in Tibet and are a significant way to understand Tibet and the Tibetans. However, research into mani heaps appears relatively limited in scope so far in Tibet as well as in the Himalayan area. At present, qualitative research is the main method used to describe or explain mani heaps, and this, to a certain extent, had led to a certain subjectivity in interpretation. In this article, we propose a quantitative method for looking at mani heaps by digital processing the colours of 70 mani heaps in Dêngqên County. Compared with previous related studies, the results are more accurate in reflecting the colour features of mani heaps in Dêngqên County. More importantly, this quantitative, digital-processing approach can be highly effective in verifying, underpinning or challenging previous research into mani heaps in Tibet and other Himalayan areas.

A Mani heap, as an important religious art, is piled up by hundreds of stones or slates carved with a lot of information about religion, culture, history, art and lifestyle of Tibetans. Mani heaps are scattered almost everywhere in Tibet and also become a significant way to understand Tibet and Tibetans. However, the study on Mani heaps appears relatively limited in scope so far not only in Tibet or even in the Himalaya area. In most of the existing studies, qualitative research is the main method to describe or explain Mani heaps which leads to subjective tendencies in somewhere. In this paper, we propose a quantitative method by digital processing the colors of 70 images of Mani heaps in Dingqing county. Compared with the previous related studies, the results are more accurate to reflect the color features of Mani heaps in Dingqing county. More importantly, this quantitative, digital processing way may become an effective research method to apply, verify, underpin or challenge the study on Mani heaps in Tibet or other Himalaya areas.

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