Tamera
Encyclopedia
Tamera is a peace research village with the goal of becoming “a self-sufficient, sustainable and duplicatable communitarian model for nonviolent cooperation and cohabitation between humans, animals, nature, and Creation for a future of peace for all." It is also often called a “healing biotope." Literally translated, "biotope
" simply means a place where life lives. In Tamera, however, “healing biotope” is also described as a “greenhouse of trust,” “an acupuncture point of peace,” and “a self-sufficient future community." It is located on 335 acres (1.4 km²) in the Alentejo region of southwestern Portugal
.
of Germany
, and then further developed the results of this research into creating a functioning community in other projects throughout Europe
, until they finally established Tamera in 1995.
. Another is the “morphic field" theory developed by Rupert Sheldrake
, where only a few peace research villages worldwide of a large enough size and complexity in which peace is established in all its aspects are enough to create cultural healing on a global level.
The political goal of Tamera and its cooperation partners worldwide is to create several such centers on earth, which they call “the plan of the healing biotopes.”
, with a branch in Tamera.
, Austrian
mountain farmer
known throughout Europe
as the “Agro-Rebel,” is cooperating with Tamera to build a sustainable “lakescape” in the dry Alentejo region of Portugal
, surrounded by a self-sufficient edible landscape with trees, gardens, and wetlands.
.
, Germany
. Designer Martin Pietsch of Tamera has developed “Shade Creations” which have been used not only in Tamera but in quite a number of light-roof pavilions in other locations.
The Great Hall in Tamera is a meeting place for up to 300 people. It is a wood-frame, straw bale, clay, and green roof
construction. With its harmonic interior structure, it is the largest straw bale and clay building on the Iberian Peninsula
.
Dieter Duhm: Future Without War: Theory of Global Healing. (2007) Verlag Meiga
ISBN 978-3-927266-24-7
Dieter Duhm: The Sacred Matrix: From the Matrix of Violence to the Matrix of Life; Foundation of a New Civilization. (2005) Verlag Meiga ISBN 978-3-927266-16-2
Sabine Lichtenfels: GRACE: Pilgrimage for a Future without War. (2007) Verlag Meiga
ISBN 978-3-927266-25-4
Sabine Lichtenfels: Sources of Love and Peace. (2004) ISBN 978-3-927266-11-7
Biotope
Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community.It...
" simply means a place where life lives. In Tamera, however, “healing biotope” is also described as a “greenhouse of trust,” “an acupuncture point of peace,” and “a self-sufficient future community." It is located on 335 acres (1.4 km²) in the Alentejo region of southwestern Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
History
Tamera was founded in 1995 by three Germans: Dieter Duhm (M.S. in Psychoanalysis, Ph.D. in Sociology), Sabine Lichtenfels (Theologian), and Rainer Ehrenpreis (M.S. in Physics). However, its history goes back to 1978 when these three left their professions and tried to create an interdisciplinary research center to find solutions to the ecological and technological problems the world was facing at that time. Very quickly they discovered that if their project had any chance of surviving, they first had to research the core human relationship questions that lay hidden under all issues and prevent real solutions – such as competition, greed, and jealousy. In 1983 they began a three-year “Social Experiment” with fifty participants in the Black ForestBlack Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and then further developed the results of this research into creating a functioning community in other projects throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, until they finally established Tamera in 1995.
Experimental research
Currently, approximately 250 coworkers and students (including children) live and study in Tamera which operates as an experimental research center dedicated to discovering how human beings can live peacefully among themselves and with nature, and create a successful, working, and sustainable community. Tamera is also a “free lab” and an international meeting place where peace workers and specialists in various fields from many parts of the world share their expertise. In 2008 participants from more than twenty-five different countries will live, study, work, or visit there.Theory
The research in Tamera is based on a complex world view explained in detail in The Sacred Matrix by Dieter Duhm. One essential part of this theory is the “implicate order” of David BohmDavid Bohm
David Joseph Bohm FRS was an American-born British quantum physicist who contributed to theoretical physics, philosophy, neuropsychology, and the Manhattan Project.-Youth and college:...
. Another is the “morphic field" theory developed by Rupert Sheldrake
Rupert Sheldrake
Rupert Sheldrake is an English scientist. He is known for having proposed an unorthodox account of morphogenesis and for his research into parapsychology. His books and papers stem from his theory of morphic resonance, and cover topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, memory,...
, where only a few peace research villages worldwide of a large enough size and complexity in which peace is established in all its aspects are enough to create cultural healing on a global level.
“What will determine the success of such peace projects is not how big and strong they are (compared to the existing apparatus of violence), but how comprehensive and complex they are, and how many elements of life they combine and unite in a positive way. When establishing new fields in evolution, it is not the law of the strongest, but the success of the more comprehensive that is the determining factor. Otherwise, no new developments could be made, for when they begin they are all small and inconspicuous."
The political goal of Tamera and its cooperation partners worldwide is to create several such centers on earth, which they call “the plan of the healing biotopes.”
Projects
Tamera serves as the headquarters for a number of different and independent projects that, when brought together properly,they believe can establish a new social model and a new culture of peace. They include the Global Campus, Monte Cerro Peace Education, the GRACE Foundation, the Institute for Global Peacework, Verlag Meiga Publishing Company, the Children’s Center, the Love School, the SolarVillage, the Permaculture Project, the Horse Project, and the Seminar and Guest Center.The Global Campus
The Global Campus is a worldwide educational initiative designed to offer knowledge in community development as well as the basic principles of decentralized energy supply, architecture, and ecology required to establish autonomous peace villages. Tamera is the home of the first phase of the Global Campus – the Monte Cerro Peace Education – and is cooperating with the San José de Apartadó Peace Village http://sos-sanjose.org/index.php?id=107 in Colombia and the Holy Land Trust http://www.holylandtrust.org/ in Palestine to establish others educational centers around the world.arshad love neha .Monte Cerro Peace Education
“Monte Cerro Peace Education” is a three-year course of studies for a comprehensive understanding for the development of globally effective peace villages. More than one hundred students have enrolled since “Monte Cerro” opened on May 1, 2006, and in April 2009 the first class will graduate.GRACE Foundation
The GRACE Foundation was established in 2007, founded by Sabine Lichtenfels, to direct and attract money towards peace projects in an attempt to offset the large amounts of money now being directed into war and war industries. With the motto, "A peace village instead of a tank," the Foundation mainly finances peace actions and peace education which are connected to the power of grace.
“GRACE follows the realization that we can only create as much peace outside ourselves as we have created inside ourselves. GRACE reminds us that the healing of our planet can only succeed if humanity succeeds in connecting itself with the true basis of life and love, trust and truth; and humanity will only succeed if we personally succeed. GRACE embraces the commitment not to aggravate personal and political conflicts, but to create new possibilities for solutions.”
The Institute for Global Peacework (IGP)
The Institute for Global Peacework is a network of peaceworkers and peace initiatives around the world who want to cooperate to create a nonviolent future. It coordinates all the different projects in Tamera and serves as the “base camp” for all external activities. It also hosts an annual “Summer University” that brings these different people and projects together in a “think tank.”Verlag Meiga Publishing Company
Verlag Meiga publishes books, literature, and essential thoughts to disseminate the knowledge and experience of over thirty years of research into the development of the “plan of the healing biotopes.” Its main headquarters is in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with a branch in Tamera.
The Children’s Center
The basic principle of the work with children in Tamera is the “education of perception.” In addition to languages, math, biology, and geography, the main emphasis in learning is placed on studies in community development, art, cosmology, international networking, and how to be a spiritual being in the world.The Love School
One core tenet of the Tamera theory is that a nonviolent culture will essentially depend on whether we succeed in ending the war between the genders. Love without jealousy, sexuality without fear, faithfulness that is not broken when one loves and desires others, truth and longevity in love, and new pathways in partnerships are the focus of the “Love School.”
“There cannot be peace between nations as long as there is war between man and woman.”
The SolarVillage
The “SolarVillage” is a test site in Tamera creating a model village that will be self-sufficient in energy and food production enough for fifty people. It can be built without any assistance from the big energy companies. Ecology, technology, architecture, and community are combined in a holistic pilot project designed and monitored by physicist and inventor Jürgen Kleinwächter. With the energy produced by a system of lenses within a greenhouse and stored in a hot oil system, round-the-clock cooking is available. Power and electricity can also be produced by means of sun-powered pulses of the low-temperature Stirling engine. Even in a hot climate, vegetables and other useful plants flourish and grow very well under light filtered by these lenses.The Permaculture Project
Since Tamera was founded, an ecological team has made ponds and oases, and planted about 20,000 trees. Sepp HolzerSepp Holzer
Josef "Sepp" Holzer is a farmer, author, and an international consultant for natural agriculture...
, Austrian
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
mountain farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
known throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as the “Agro-Rebel,” is cooperating with Tamera to build a sustainable “lakescape” in the dry Alentejo region of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, surrounded by a self-sufficient edible landscape with trees, gardens, and wetlands.
The Horse Project
The basis of working with horses in Tamera is to develop a new way of cooperation between human and horse, to promote inner growth, and to increase the ability to be in intimate contact with animals. The horses are ridden without bits or saddles, which requires trust and sensitive communication. The Horse Project is now expanding to offer first-aid treatment for sick, injured, or abused animals, and developing an Animal Sanctuary.Seminar and Guest Center
The Seminar and Guest Center offers visitors the possibility to get to know Tamera, its grounds, and its research activities. The Center includes the Tamera Guesthouse, visitor’s cabins and community tents, as well as the International Youth Cultural Center; and its activities include courses and seminars, Information Weeks, the Summer University, and Open Sundays.Art and Music
In many intensive courses and community encounters throughout the history of the Tamera project, art was discovered to be a creative principle of Creation and became an essential element for the inner development of community. In addition to painting, “art” in Tamera now includes music, theater, dance, landscape art, and artistic expression in language. For example, there is a Tamera Chorus as well as a small a cappella jazz group called the “MoonRiders.”.
Architecture
Tamera has created experimental buildings as models for the construction of peace villages, designed by various architects such as Gernot Minke, professor of Clay Architecture at the University of KasselKassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Designer Martin Pietsch of Tamera has developed “Shade Creations” which have been used not only in Tamera but in quite a number of light-roof pavilions in other locations.
The Great Hall in Tamera is a meeting place for up to 300 people. It is a wood-frame, straw bale, clay, and green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
construction. With its harmonic interior structure, it is the largest straw bale and clay building on the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
.
Spirituality
In Tamera, spirituality and religion are not questions of some profession of faith or creed, but of a clear perception, openness, and connection with universal forces in daily life. The core community gathers together every morning and every afternoon in the “Political Ashram” to focus on attunement and connection through spiritual lectures. There is also a stone circle in Tamera made up of more than sixty monoliths, created and arranged by Sabine Lichtenfels in cooperation with Marko Pogacnik and Peter Frank, that serves as a place of meditation and power.Further reading
Books translated into English:Dieter Duhm: Future Without War: Theory of Global Healing. (2007) Verlag Meiga
ISBN 978-3-927266-24-7
Dieter Duhm: The Sacred Matrix: From the Matrix of Violence to the Matrix of Life; Foundation of a New Civilization. (2005) Verlag Meiga ISBN 978-3-927266-16-2
Sabine Lichtenfels: GRACE: Pilgrimage for a Future without War. (2007) Verlag Meiga
ISBN 978-3-927266-25-4
Sabine Lichtenfels: Sources of Love and Peace. (2004) ISBN 978-3-927266-11-7
See also
- BiotopeBiotopeBiotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community.It...
- Boom FestivalBoom FestivalThe Boom Festival is a biennial festival which takes place in Portugal.The festival features music, paint, sculpture, video art, installations cinema, theater and a concept of crosspollination of different art forms....
- Dieter DuhmDieter DuhmDieter Duhm, sociologist, psychoanalyst, art historian and author, is one of the co-founders of Tamera, a peace research center in southwestern Portugal.-Life and work:...
- Findhorn FoundationFindhorn FoundationThe Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain....
- ZEGG (community)