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Meet Tamera -

Tamera is a peace research community located in Alentejo, in southwestern Portugal. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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What is it, exactly? -

The village established in the Portuguese countryside in 1995 had a vision in mind: to become a world without war. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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The vision -

The community members seek to create Terra Nova, a term used to describe the vision of a culture of autonomous and interconnected communities that form a post-patriarchal civilization free of violence and war. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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The mission -

They wish to create a model that can be replicated around the world. The community, called a “healing biotope,” focuses on self-sufficiency and sustainability as a way to show that these communities can thrive anywhere. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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How did this start? - Though the Portuguese village was established in 1995, the founders started researching the project in the 1960s at the peak of the Cold War and the Summer of Love. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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How did this start? -

The project was founded by three Germans: Dieter Duhm (pictured), a sociologist and psychoanalyst, Sabine Lichtenfels, a theologian, and Rainer Ehrenpreis, a physicist. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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The first experiment -

The trio settled their first healing biotope in southern Germany in 1978. By the early 1980s, they had 50 members who committed to spending three years in the Black Forest (pictured).

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Building a sustainable community -

The first step was to teach the people how to live independently from the outside world. They learned how to build homes, wastewater treatment, and other everyday needs. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Sexual freedom -

Another important step was to free themselves from previous sexual morals and learn from one another. The founders call this “healing of love.” (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Healing of love -

These community members believe in creating an environment of trust in which to fully discover and express their erotic truth. They set foundations for love free of jealousy, lies, and betrayal. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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It’s a political theory -

In the 1980s, Duhm developed a political theory outlining a strategy for global peace, which he argued can be achieved through a network of healing biotopes and peace villages. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Today -

Tamera has more than 200 members, including children, who live off the land and embrace the founders’ early vision. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Global reach -

Tamera serves as the headquarters for different and independent projects that, together, create the network of healing biotopes envisioned by the founders. The network extends to Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, and Israel/Palestine. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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The Children’s Center -

Children growing up in Tamera learn languages, math, biology, and geography, but also community development, art, cosmology, international networking, and spirituality. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

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The Love School -

Also fundamental to their philosophy is the tenet that a nonviolent society can only exist by ending the war between genders. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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The Love School -

The Love School promotes love without jealousy, sexuality without fear, faithfulness that is independent from one’s loves and desires, truth, and longevity in love. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Why Portugal? -

The founders chose Portugal because of the country’s historical ability to embrace radical movements. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Why Portugal? - They also wanted to settle on a depleted environment to show that a sustainable community can be built anywhere, even on barren land. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Projects -

To carry out their vision of creating a self-sufficient and sustainable community, they have put together teams to head different ecological projects. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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The SolarVillage -

The team behind this project has made ponds and oases, and planted about 20,000 trees. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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The Horse Project -

This project seeks to develop a more holistic cooperation between humans and horses. The horses are ridden without saddles or bits. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

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The community members -

Though some are Portuguese, British, and Israeli, most of the people who live here are German. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Self-sufficiency: energy -

In the kitchen, they have a set of mirrors that reflect light onto a stone, which is used to heat pots and pans. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Self-sufficiency: energy -

When the sun isn’t strong enough, they use biogas generated by kitchen waste. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Self-sufficiency: water -

Tamerians have developed, with the help of a permaculturist, landscapes that retain rainwater in the ground through lakes, ponds, wells, and water terraces. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Are they 100% self-sufficient? -

No. About half of their energy comes from the national grid. They produce about 25% of their (all vegan) food and buy the rest from local farmers. And about half of their income comes from visitors. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0)

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Philosophy of global change -

Part of their philosophy revolves around changing what Duhm calls “morphogenetic field,” a collective of human thoughts and behaviors. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Morphogenetic field -

The founders believe that the planet’s current morphogenetic field is filled with violence towards men, women, children, and nature. They believe we can change this by changing our thoughts and attitudes. (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Silly or impressive? - Is Tamera visionary or an outdated experiment? What do you think? (Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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