Finland: Falun Gong Photo Exhibition Tours Lapland (Part 4)

For parts I, II and III of this series of articles, please see:
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200506/27060.html
http://en.clearharmony.net/articles/200507/27991.html
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200509/29007.html

During spring 2005, we contacted several libraries in Lapland and made inquiries about holding a Falun Gong photo exhibition. Several librarians were interested to hold an exhibition during the spring and summer. Most of them knew about Falun Gong already and those who didn’t were interested to hold the exhibition and find out more.

Because of the great interest we continued to hold the photo exhibition in late autumn. This time we headed to Kuusamo to hold the exhibition there.

I was organising some information material about the persecution of Falun Gong on the table when I felt that somebody was watching us. When I turned my head I saw two young girls following my husband with their eyes when he hung up the pictures. I asked if they spoke Finnish. The older one answered very clearly, "Yes." She continued to look at the pictures and asked, “What is this about?” At the same time as I was explaining Falun Gong to her she looked at the pictures and her dark eyes were glowing when she said, “This is something I would like to learn more about.” She got information about Falun Gong and also the website address. The girls were born in South-Korea but had been in Kuusamo for several years. They left us with happy smiles on their faces. The exhibition was held in Kuusamo for two weeks and during that time many people signed their names in the guestbook.

It was September 17th when we left for our nest stop, Muonio. It is located next to the Swedish border and about 200 km further on is the Norwegian border.

The library in Muonio was an old wooden house. The exhibition looked beautiful on the wall. The librarian gave us lot of support - with her help the Koillis-Lappi Newspaper learned about this exhibition. But they could not come to Muonio to do the interview because of the long distances in Lapland, instead he interviewed us via the phone and the article was published in the newspaper.

Next place for the exhibition was Pelkosenniemi. In the tourist information they write that the Pyhätunturi (name of a mountain) is the door into true Lapland. Here the time slows down, the natural beauty opens people’s hearts, the ancient mountains touch the inner part and the forgotten stories begin to live again.

Meditating in Lapland

The natural beauty of Lapland makes people forget their worries

The library was in the same building as the school. Falun Gong was warmly welcomed to this small cultural town.

Before we even began to hang the pictures the door opened and students passed us in a long stream to go for lunch in the dining-hall. Some of the students asked curiously what was happening to a person in a certain picture and why they had to suffer.

One young girl asked, "What will happen to those who do this evil, are they going to be put in jail for committing this kind of crime?" This girl learned that all of them who had done bad deeds must bear the penalty for what they have done, bad things have to be exposed and the guilty ones will be brought to justice. Some students discussed among them selves about the pictures and they seemed to have a good understanding about the stories behind the pictures. The photo exhibition hung there for two weeks to let the people learn more of the truth. When we arrived two weeks later we held a short introduction class for those who were interested to learn the practise of Falun Gong.

Between all the travelling we use to take small breaks to stretch our legs or to eat something. That gave us more chances to talk to people about the persecution that is taking place in China. We realised that more and more people understood that the persecution in China is bad and against human rights. Falun Gong practitioners should not be persecuted.

Originally published in Finnish at: http://fi.clearharmony.net/articles/200510/3422.html