Falun Gong

Falun Gong (Chinese, "Practice of the Wheel of Dharma") is a Chinese movement founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992. Its adherents perform ritual exercises to obtain mental and spiritual renewal.

Falun Gong is also known as Falun Dafa. Technically, Falun Gong refers to the practice, while Falun Dafa refers to the teaching of the movement, but the terms are now generally used interchangably.

The teachings of Falun Gong draw from the Asian religious traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese folklore as well as those of Western New Age movements.

The movement's sudden emergence in the 1990s was a great concern to the Chinese government, which viewed Falun Gong as a cult and a threat.

Falun Gong has claimed not to be an organization and its texts speak of it as a practice rather than a religion. But it does contain teachings about the spiritual world and it has a closely connected membership (achieved in large part through the internet).[#1]

[#1]: "Falun Gong." John Bowker, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions