A Chance Encounter between the Greek Premier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Practitioners from Europe and Australia

Before I came to Greece to hold my painting exhibition, some practitioners had asked me to take photographs of the Srivatsa [ The symbol of the Buddha]. The Srivatsa is an ancient symbol found in cultures throughout the world] symbols that are common in Greek culture. We found the Srivatsa symbols in new places everyday. They could be seen everywhere in Greece. The ancient signs were on the walls, the ground, tables and chairs in the Parliament buildings, City halls, Libraries, Banks, Colleges, and Temples.

We found many Srivatsa symbols in a Greek University today. We noticed there were a lot of police around, and thought there must be someone important at the university. We asked a policeman about this and he told us that the Greek Premier was visiting the university. We entered the hall through a side entrance and just as I had finished preparing an album of paintings and truth-clarifying materials, the Premier came to visit us. He warmly greeted us and shook our hands. One practitioner described my 8-month experience of persecution in a forced labour camp in China, and told him that I was an artist, invited to hold a painting exhibition by the Cultural Centre of Athens City.

Knowing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs could speak Swedish, a Swedish practitioner spoke to the Minister. They started talking amiably. At first, the Minister thought that the practitioner was one of the staff in the college. When he realised that he was a Swedish Falun Gong practitioner who came here to help set up the exhibition of paintings by an Australian painter, who was also a Falun Gong practitioner, he said gladly, “I have heard of Falun Gong.” The Minister also accepted the truth-clarifying materials we had prepared.

The media outside the Centre became very interested in what was happening. Ms. Dai Zhizhen, holding her daughter Fadu, told the reporters how her husband was tortured to death by the Jiang regime because he would not give up practising Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at
http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200301/16793.html