Falun Gong members (from left) Wei Ping, Joy Zhao, Hong Liner, Young Yang and Leeshai Lemish arrive at the Capitol after a three-day walk from Portland to Salem to raise awareness of the issues the spiritual group faces throughout the world.
A handful of Falun Gong enthusiasts arrived in Salem midday Monday after a 2 1/2-day march from Portland to publicize repression against the movement in China.
“Many lives are at risk,” said Joy Zhao, a Portland State University student who helped organize the march. “By doing this walk, we hope more people will know the truth about this persecution.”
Falun Gong combines meditation, spiritual and philosophical guidelines, and exercises similar to Tai Chi and yoga. It revolves around three precepts: truth, compassion and tolerance.
After its 1992 founding by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong attracted tens of millions of adherents in China. By the late-1990s, thousands of followers thronged to Tiananmen Square for daily group exercises. As the movement swelled, the Chinese government cracked down on the practice, ultimately banning Falun
Gong in 1999.
The government was “scared of people gathering,” said Zhao, one of eight people who participated in the Portland-to-Salem march and one of three who finished the entire 49-mile route, mostly along Highway 99E.
The Chinese government “can’t stand that people are free and have free thought,” said Xiao Yang. She learned about Falun Gong on a 1996 trip to China, and now lives in Portland.
Falun Gong cured her mother’s heart disease, Yang said. “It’s really a miracle.”
Followers say tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in China, many of them detained in labor camps or mental institutions. Many have been beaten or died in custody, they said.
Li now resides in the United States, and his ideas continue to draw followers here and around the world.
In recent months, Falun Gong followers have organized a series of marches in various nations and across the United States to publicize their plight.
Marchers estimated there are only 30 people who practice Falun Gong in Oregon, and none in the Salem area.
But they hope to attract more through the Internet, one-on-one instruction and training.