TAMERA
Tamera – a place, a community, a lived utopia. The project started in Germany in 1978 and found a new home in the south of Portugal in 1995. Over 200 inhabitants plus a various number of long-term guests constantly live in this community – in the search for free love, world peace and a holistic life in harmony with nature. Many of the inhabitants have German roots and have lived in the community for more than half of their lives. Some were even born in the settlement and don’t have much experience in life outside of Tamera. The “Tamerians” themselves call their place a “healing biotope”, which should be seen as a model for more settlements in the world. The Tamera community has connections and networks all over the world, doing peace work and sharing experience on research and community living. The Tamerians see their “Healing Biotope 1” as a prototype, knowing that they are still not perfect when it comes to self-supply of food, for example, which is self-sustainable up to 30%. Furthermore, the community wants to stay dynamic in the future, giving statements about current political or ecological developments and realizing peace projects in crisis regions. Many visitors come to Tamera every year to learn for instance about community building or the successful ecosystem restoration using the principles of rainwater retention. The area is about 330 acres large and consists of different sections – the solar valley, a guest and education centre, the political ashram, the children´s school, the stone circle, many gardens and workshops. Tamera is admired worldwide by other communities for having existed for over 40 years, while many other communities fail or divide after the first few years. The basic principles of community ownership, a strong open communication and the trust in their spiritual leaders seem to be the main pillars for this success.