Estonia: our experience in the ancient city of Tallinn

By Canadian practitioners

It was a bright sunny day in Estonia so we headed straight to a popular tourist destination in Tallinn – the ancient city. This is an old city built in the middle of the last millennium. It is very small but the buildings are old, distinctive and scattered on both sides of a narrow stone road. We did not go into the ancient city right away. Instead we chose to practise the exercise movements and distribute flyers on a stretch of intersecting lawn outside. As we practised the standing exercises, passers-by would copy us and stretch their arms, even including a policeman on patrol. When all our flyers had been handed out, we went into the ancient city.

On reaching the public square at the heart of the ancient city, we were astonished to discover that it was crowded with people. There were all sorts of restaurants surrounding the square and outside the restaurants many chairs and tables were full of people drinking beers. On one side of the square was an open-air market with many stalls in it, and tourists went in and out in an endless stream. A stage was set up opposite the market and unexpectedly in front of it were hung Falun Dafa flags in all sorts of colours. On closer inspection, it turned out that a group of practitioners from Australia and Toronto had already begun a demonstration of the exercise movements. What a great opportunity to hongfa (inform people about Falun Dafa). We subsequently discovered from the Internet that practitioners from Australia had negotiated with the manager in order to use this stage. Hence, we immediately went on stage and started a new round of exercise demonstrations: first the young practitioners, next the elderly practitioners, followed by the female practitioners and finally the male practitioners. We demonstrated the standing exercises first followed by the sitting meditation. We attracted countless observers. Below the stage, practitioners grabbed the opportunity to hand out information in English, Russian and Estonian. People took the initiative to talk with us and some asked to learn the exercise movements on the spot. A young Estonian man shyly came forward. Using his limited knowledge of English, he repeatedly said: “I like this music very much” and asked whether there were any practitioners in Estonia. He had a Dafa flyer in his hand.

At the crowded square many people gathered to watch the practitioners performing the exercises. Some people were talking to practitioners to find out more about Falun Dafa.

Male practitioners demonstrating the exercises.

Female practitioners demonstrating the exercises.

Teaching exercises to interested tourists and locals.

At night when it was time to leave, the flow of people in the square gradually diminished. I then noticed that the same young man was still standing there quietly watching us, reluctant to leave. Several male practitioners were still meditating quietly on the stage. All of a sudden came more than ten young men dressed in matching sportswear. Nearly every one of them had a bottle of beer in his hand and they created uproar; it was time to end the exercises! A male practitioner stood up and walked towards the group of young men. He lead them to say “Fa-lun-Da-Fa-hao” Thus the young men shouted along with him: “Fa-lun-Da-Fa hao!” The chorus shook the entire square attracting many people’s attention. After yelling this several times, one of the young men asked in English: “What does ‘Falun Dafa hao’ mean?” The male practitioner replied in English: “ It means Falun Dafa is so good!” With that, everyone cheered once again, pushing the day’s hongfa activity to a climax.

Translated from: http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/6/26/32370.html