(Minghui.org) Christiane Teich is a Western Falun Dafa practitioner who has lived in India for decades. Over the past several years she has traveled to various places in India to introduce Falun Dafa to more people.
Located in southern India near Myanmar and Thailand, Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory consisting of hundreds of islands. The beautiful location has been shrouded in mystery for centuries due to its inaccessibility. In addition, large areas of the islands have been set aside as restricted areas, leaving the indigenous peoples there in seclusion and their cultures intact.
Ms. Teich previously visited the mountainous regions of India and introduced Dafa to the residents there. It’s long been her dream to visit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. But it did not happen due to the COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdown and travel restrictions. Between 2022 and 2023, however, she was able to travel from Darjeeling to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands twice.
This was a “totally new experience,” said Ms. Teich. The first trip lasted 40 days in late 2022 and the second trip was for 85 days in 2023. During these two trips, she introduced Falun Dafa to 12 schools, two colleges and a children’s home. The practice was well received and she was also invited by schools to hold numerous workshops.
Ms. Teich said nearly every school principal accepted Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They believe that these values are important for life, schools, families, and society. “They couldn’t believe that I was nearly 72 years old and managed to travel there just to spread these important values,” Ms. Teich said. Many people said the divine helped and protected her.
Several schools wrote letters to Ms. Teich, and thanked her for visiting them.
Nine Workshops During the First Visit
On August 20, 2022, Ms. Teich arrived at Port Blair, the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. She said local residents had never heard of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) before and, as a result, she held nine workshops to introduce the practice.
When she first arrived, Ms. Teich was not sure how to get started. After talking with local residents, however, she realised this was the right place, since Port Blair is a hub where she could meet people from other islands and even other parts of India. As a result, she stayed there for 40 days and helped many people come know about Falun Dafa. A newspaper, The Echo of India, also published an article on the front page on October 2, 2022, about these sessions in schools in Andaman.
When she visited the first school in town on August 29, the students and teachers gathered on the school grounds after morning assembly, and Ms. Teich taught them the Falun Dafa exercises. Although it was unusually hot, the session went well.
The next day, a session was held in another school’s auditorium. When Ms. Teich asked for feedback afterward, several students talked about their feelings without hesitation. They said the practice was good, peaceful, and made them feel energetic. They sincerely agreed with Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
In the third school, some teachers said they experienced a sense of peace and relaxation when they did the exercises. Some said they also felt a subtle flow of energy. The teachers recommended the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to students and said they could apply these in their daily lives.
The fourth school Ms. Teich visited organised a session for the students in the eighth grade. Both teachers and students appreciated Falun Dafa very much.
The session in the fifth school took place on September 16, 2022 and it was one of the largest Falun Dafa sessions Ms. Teich conducted. Students from the 9th to 12th grades all learned the Falun Dafa exercises. It was a well-known school in the town and the principal is a Catholic nun. The school was holding mid-term exams at the time. But the principal was very supportive and said, “Children of this age group need such self-cultivation sessions the most.”
Ms. Teich said she was touched by the positive feedback. “It may be that people were moved by the universal principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, or it is due to their predestined relationship [with Falun Dafa],” she said. This largest session in Port Blair was successfully concluded with teachers’ support, especially the students who sat in pin-drop silence during the meditation exercise. One teacher expressed her astonishment that so many students sat in complete silence, something she, “thought would be impossible.”
After this session, the school principal met with Ms. Teich to thank her. She also asked if another session could be held on September 27, 2022.
That day, Ms. Teich also received letters from the third and fourth schools thanking her for visiting them. Principals of both schools wrote that they were happy to learn Falun Dafa. During her visits, Ms. Teich also told the students and faculty about the ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and gave them flyers, bookmarks, as well as magazines with information about the practice.
Once, when Ms. Teich ate at a restaurant, a child at a nearby table, who was eating with his family, kept looking at her and whispered something to his mother. When Ms. Teich gave them a Falun Dafa flyer, the mother said her son recognised her. After the student was injured at school and was waiting for his mother to pick him up, Ms. Teich comforted him and gave him a lotus flower. It turned out that the boy’s father was a doctor and Ms. Teich told the family about the suppression in China including the forced organ harvesting from Falun Dafa practitioners by the CCP.
Before Ms. Teich finished her first trip to the islands, another Dafa practitioner from the coastal city of Bangalore came to Port Blair and joined her in the last few days of September. Together they introduced Falun Dafa to students at a college, a school, and a children’s home for girls.
The Second Trip
Ms. Teich’s second trip lasted 85 days, from the 2023 World Falun Dafa Day (May 13) to August 8. The weather was unusually hot this season and it became a constant challenge. Despite these difficulties, however, all the workshops to introduce Falun Dafa went very well.
Both students and teachers said they felt refreshed, peaceful, and full of energy, during and after the sessions. They were touched by the universal principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They were surprised to hear how peaceful Falun Dafa practitioners are mistreated in China for their belief.
The first few weeks after Ms. Teich arrived, the elementary and secondary schools were not yet open. She thus went to colleges and held workshops. She also told people about Falun Dafa wherever she went.
Test of Life and Death
During this trip, Ms. Teich also traveled to Little Andaman Island, which takes around 6-9 hours by ferry from Port Blair. She said this was her most challenging and adventurous trip on the sea. The ferry traveled for many hours in isolation on the high seas. There was no connection with the outside, and Ms. Teich said it was a “life and death experience.”
“I felt my last moments had come, yet miraculously the universe’s energy of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance filled my being and I was fine,” she recalled. “It indeed felt like I was rescued from the brink of death to indescribable serenity, peace, and calm.” The trip back from Little Andaman to Port Blair was very smooth.
Memorable Moments
Ms. Teich shared some other memorable stories during her trip. When she distributed 2023 Falun Dafa calendars and flyers in small shops in Long Island, a woman said she knew about Falun Dafa from a session held in her school the year before.
When she distributed materials in a small restaurant in the small town of Rangat, a teacher also recognised Ms. Teich because she’d attended a previous session and had learned about Falun Dafa.
One day when Ms. Teich was walking around in Rangat, two people sitting by a garden invited her to join them. They happened to be relatives of an assistant commissioner. After a while, the commissioner arrived and, upon hearing about Falun Dafa, asked her to teach a session the next day for her staff members.
Ms. Teich had the chance to spend some days in the Webi village with the Karen community. The Karen ethnicity is originally from Myanmar and the people settled in various villages in Andaman. In a traditional house made of wood, bamboo, and leaves, one person read the various Falun Dafa informational materials and an article from Master Li (founder of Falun Dafa), “How Humankind Came to Be.” The person found the information, “very interesting and inspiring,” and wished to learn the exercises. Local residents also invited Ms. Teich to a birthday party, where she met many people and gave them Dafa materials.
While Ms. Teich passed by a resort outside of Diglipur in the northern Andamans, the owner said that she has a relative who is a teacher in a well-known school in Port Blair. Since Ms. Teich had held two workshops there before, the owner’s relative spoke very highly of Falun Dafa and said, “Everybody should practice Falun Dafa.” Before leaving, Ms. Teich also left a lot of Dafa materials in various languages for tourists.
Looking back on these experiences, Ms. Teich said that people were happy to receive information about Falun Dafa. This included shops, police stations, local libraries, schools, and colleges. They also accepted the books Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun in various Indian languages. During one session at Port Blair, a social media influencer who runs a video channel interviewed her along with two teachers.
“I feel humbled that they were happy to accept these materials, which were destined to be delivered to them,” Ms. Teich said. “I only did a small task of bringing them these materials. I want to thank all those practitioners who sent me these loads of materials from various parts of India to Port Blair.” She said this period of time was precious because she was able to fulfill a vow made long ago. She has no plans to stop, since she needs to travel to more places and tell people about Falun Dafa.
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