Against the backdrop of a bright yellow banner with Ming Hui school written in bold red letters, a group of exercisers slowly and gently raise their arms, palms outstretched.

They hold the pose for a moment, their faces serene. Then, abruptly and in unison, they snap out of it, and their bodies fall into relaxed curves.

It is a mixed group, ranging in age from 5 to 70. Participants include students from elementary school through college, housewives, postal workers, doctors, graphic designers and software engineers from Columbia, Md., to Chantilly.

Come Saturday, everyone changes into T-shirts and sweat pants to begin quest for truthfulness, compassion and forbearance -- which they say are the three founding principles of the Chinese exercise of Falun Gong.

These are students of the Ming Hui School, which opened its doors in January this year -- the first Falun Gong school anywhere in the world, its founders say. A second school opened in March in Australia. Classes are held every Saturday throughout fall and spring in rented space at the Richard Montgomery High School off Rockville Pike. The students make voluntary contributions to help pay for the space.

Followers describe Falun Gong, more formally known as Falun Dafa, as a "practice of refining the body and mind through special exercises and meditation." Based on ancient Chinese principles, Falun Gong was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, a spiritual leader who now lives in New York.

Practitioners say the slow but deliberate moves have rapidly gained popularity the world over because they are designed to heal the body and the spirit without the wear and tear of other forms of physical exercise.

They chose "Ming Hui" as the name of their school because the words mean understanding and wisdom in Chinese, says the school's Co-founder and curriculum director, Judy Su Jing Chao. For her students, Mrs. Chao, 48, has devised a curriculum that involves reading for two hours every Saturday from the two books and poems written by Li Hongzhi. In one book, "China Falun Gong," Mr. Hongzhi discusses such topics as cultivating energy and compassion and abolishing jealousy and attachment.

Classes at the school are in both English and Chinese, with a Spanish practitioner available for those who need translation. The study classes are followed by two hours of practicing Falun Dafa exercises.

"Our school is for everyone, young and old," Mrs. Chao says, adding that the students include people who just started learning Falun Gong and those who have been practicing it for years.

"We welcome people of any color, any religion," she says.

The school already has an enrollment of about 30 children and 40 adults, but Mrs. Chao says there is space for anyone who wants to join.

What's more, it is all free of charge. "We do not seek payment for what we teach, because that is what our leader, Li Hongzhi, believes," says the school's principal, Jianmei Yu.

Almost all adults working at the school hold other jobs. Mrs. Chao is a graphic artist, and Dr. Yu, 37, was a physician in China and now does medical research for a local biotechnology firm.

Dr. Yu says she was moved into practicing Falun Gong after attending a New York conference where she heard a teen talk about giving up drugs when he discovered Falun Gong.

Her own body has been healed by the exercise, she says. "I am healthy, but I would sometimes suffer from back pain and headaches. It's all gone now, I just feel more relaxed," she says.

The movement to preserve and propagate Falun Gong has been spreading around the world, particularly in the face of strong attempts to stifle it in China. "In the beginning, the Chinese government encouraged Falun Gong. But when they found it was becoming more and more popular, they began to crack down on it," Dr. Yu says.

[...] Abroad, however, the practice thrives. In the United States, including in the Washington area, groups of practitioners meet once or more a week to practice Falun Gong, usually in libraries, parks and even on the National Mall. Innumerable Web sites discuss the virtues of this method of exercise.

Dr. Yu says having a school gives people a chance to learn not just the exercises, but the principles behind them, which could be of great value in a stress- and violence-filled world. [...] She and Mrs. Chao thought of starting the school after a nine-day Falun Gong summer camp last year. "It was very successful. The children enjoyed it so much, they didn't want to leave," she says.

They spread word of the new school through a local Chinese television channel, ads in community newspapers and word-of-mouth.

Students pour in and continue to return every week, primarily because they say they have noticed a positive difference in their lives.

Wattana Bounthong, 26, a postal worker from Arlington, says he enjoyed learning with the children "because they do everything more truthfully."

The environment in a post office could be very stressful, but Falun Gong had changed all that for him, the Laotian native says. "Doing physical exercises usually tires you, but these fulfill your body," he says.

"We appreciate the freedom in this country, the ability to do what we want to do and practice Falun Gong," Mrs. Chao says.

Many of her students are, like her, first-generation immigrants from China or Taiwan. They all hold jobs here and have created new lives for themselves, but the oppression back home in China haunts them.

Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in China, Dr. Yu says. Thousands more are in prison. "But there is nothing political about Falun Gong," she says. The school is closed for summer and will open in September, but so strong is the students' commitment that one evening this week, after working long hours, most of them turned up for a mid vacation session to exercise together.

The special exercise session was held on the grounds of Richard Montgomery High School, and afterward the students closed their eyes and meditated, sitting cross-legged on the grass.

Exercises have picturesque names, such as: "Buddha showing a thousand hands," and "The great heavenly circuit."

Despite these names, no religion is involved, its followers say. Instead, "Truth, compassion and tolerance are in every breath we take," says student Frances Yang, who lives in Chantilly.

A cosmetologist by profession, Mrs. Yang looks strikingly young for her 42 years, but she credits Falun Gong and not her beauty training for her youthful looks. "It is what is inside that matters. Falun Gong makes you beautiful inside," she says.

Girija Bisoor, 36, an Indian immigrant and housewife from Columbia, roped her husband and son into learning Falun Gong after hearing about it from a Chinese friend. She says it has been a life-altering experience.

"I am more understanding now with my son, and I feel more energetic at the end of the day."

She plans to start attending the Ming Hui School, along with her son Tejaswi, 15, who says he resisted learning Falun Gong at the beginning but the discovered it helped him become a better person.

"I can now tell the good from the bad, and I don't fight with my parents anymore," he says.

Parents say their children are getting a head start on good values.

"Children don't quarrel; they learn not to blame each other," says Naiwen Chen, 52, a teacher at Ming Hui School.

Five-Year-old Liuzhi Zhang doesn't say much, but his father, Hailian Zhang, 34 points to drawings made by his sons that show the "law wheel" of Falun Gong, a yellow circle with a swastika, an ancient Chinese symbol, at the center.

The law wheel depicts the energy of the universe, Mrs. Chao says.

Liuzhi, who lives in Northwest, has been attending Ming Hui School since January. "He can already recite all the poems taught in class," Mr. Zhang says.

Tony Xue, 9, of Bethesda, says he has learned about "telling the truth and being kind to people."

He also learned about tolerance. "It is like when you are meditating and you get really itchy but you learn to hold it," he says.

For more information on the Ming Hui School, call Judy Chao at 301/490-8038