  In this paper, we propose a novel meshfree Generalized Finite Difference
Method (GFDM) approach to discretize PDEs defined on manifolds. Derivative
approximations for the same are done directly on the tangent space, in a manner
that mimics the procedure followed in volume-based meshfree GFDMs. As a result,
the proposed method not only does not require a mesh, it also does not require
an explicit reconstruction of the manifold. In contrast to existing methods, it
avoids the complexities of dealing with a manifold metric, while also avoiding
the need to solve a PDE in the embedding space. A major advantage of this
method is that all developments in usual volume-based numerical methods can be
directly ported over to surfaces using this framework. We propose
discretizations of the surface gradient operator, the surface Laplacian and
surface Diffusion operators. Possibilities to deal with anisotropic and
discontinous surface properties (with large jumps) are also introduced, and a
few practical applications are presented.
