Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nope, it isn't. Not specifically, anyway.

It was created in the 90s, as an outcropping of a renewal of the Qigong movement. While Quigong contains meditative practices (and some very cool martial arts to boot), it's not a specifically Buddhist thing anymore (though the roots of the movements of Qigong were originally in Buddhist monasteries, much like the rest of Kung Fu).

Falun Gong itself takes in elements from Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and Judaism and tacks them on what is, effectively, a new age rewriting of ancient meditative practice and energy flow practice.

Frankly, I think they're a little wacky - they've got a 'separate but equal' doctrine involving heavens for different races, and view children of mixed race couples as signs of the Buddhist 'Dharma Ending Times' - something I think is more than silly, especially when you add their leader's comment that, effectively, since all races have a heaven of their own, interracial kids have no place in heaven at all without his divine intercession.

Their leader also claims he's done a host of supernatural feats, is the heir to a whole Buddhist school (I don't think that was ever confirmed, by the way) and was the master of a Daoist school by age 10. Needless to say, I find him more than a little suspect, and don't trust him. He seems to have set himself up as, effectively, a messianic-type leader figure with these tales, which so far have borne no fruit aside from cheap tricks that can be easily replicated (which he called his 'supernatural powers').

Needless to say, as a movement, it doesn't really impress me. The meditative practices are cool, but the teachings themselves and the leader are very questionable indeed.