Report of the Visit to Tamera, Portugal (4)

xidai

Report of the Visit to Tamera, Portugal (4)

Conglong Celestial

June 4, 2013

The tamera community is very big, so it is a little difficult for me to know all members. Here, according to my understanding, I will briefly introduce this community to you:

1. The founders of the tamera are Dieter Dhum and Sabine Lichtenfels. They are Germans. 17 years ago, they came from Germany to Portugal to create the tamera community. I met them some times in the community. They are so nice and taught classes during the seminar. Mr Dierter Dhum is over 70 years old and speaks slowly. Ms Sabine Lichtenfels is  cheerful, wise and loving.

2. Vision: The purpose of the tamera is to build a future without wars. The basis of their theory is that they think it is the lack of love which causes the violence and war between people and people, especially the love between men and women. They thought the long-time patriarchal society lead to mental wound of many people and then they closed their heart. Their thoughts and behaviours were controlled by fear instead of love. And all social system got a virus which is making people far from love.  The  emphasis of the work and research of the tamera is to how to awake the love in human nature and how to build a community for people to reopen  their heart , completely and unconditionally love and accept love in order to make people and people, people and other living beings rebuild full confidence and live in harmony.

Except the vision above, the tamara has no other unified belief and doesn't  restrict members' liberty of belief.

3. The permanent members:  There are 120 adults and 30 children living here. Because the founders are German, 80% members are Germen. They also have members from USA, Portugal, Europe and Middle East.

4. The working time of members: The major members I met are to work for propaganda. As I observe, they work for 7 or 8 hours per day. Their working time is flexible and no body  supervises. Every member works freely in their fields. But there is a coordinator and in charge of all activities of propaganda. The members also need to have some meetings to report the latest work and share the result.

5. The economy: The major income of the tamara is from donation and training. The tamera is not  achieving 100% self-sufficiency rate. They still need to buy some food and other daily goods from the market. It is not achieving  financially sustainable, either. So, if the community got trouble in economy, the members will be asked to work in the society or provided the source of economy in other ways.

6. Ecological development: There are specialized members who Engage in the research and practice of the technical aspects of the ecological  development. They also invited Sepp Holzer  to give advices on the ecological  development. The geographical environment of the community was originally in the state of Arid Desertification. They started to build water retention landscapes under the suggestion of  Sepp Holzer in 2007. Now there are seven lakes in the community and all built by natural materials. They were big holes first and collected rainwater in the beginning. After several years, they became the lakes. These lakes are full of  vitality. There are small fish,  frogs, water snakes and turtles in the lakes. The lakes also have many water plants, such as colorful lotus flowers. When the lakes  formed dimensions, they attracted many birds and wild animals, such as otters. When it is very hot in summer, many members will go to swim in the lakes. Somebody told me that it is so good to swim when the water plants and animals were with him. In the tamare, there is an important value that the water is the basis of ecological  and physical development. So they cherish the water a lot. When they pray, they will put a glass bowl of water in the centre.

Besides the water retention landscapes, there are solar energy research and permaculture groups in the community.

7. Meal: All three meals are vegetarian. The breakfast is simple, which are tea, coffee, wheat flakes and fruit. The lunch and supper are rice or bread with sauce, and vegetable salad. It is okay for members to smoke. There are many young people smoking in Europe. I often see many people smoking in the community.

8. Birth, death, illness and old age: The tamera bought medical insurance for every permanent member.

9. Culture: Every Sunday is the rest day and will have a big gathering at 10 AM. It is free for members to join or not. I attended the gathering every week. During the gathering, the important people or  founders of the community will explain the values and inform the activities in next week. There are also small band concerts in the gathering. There has a prayer service on 6:30 AM every Monday. It is also free for members to join or not. It holds on a stone circle of a small hill. The tamera will open to the outside world in spring and summer. Then there are many visitors coming from all over the world to experience the life here and take part in diffrent courses. There might have some visitors who are working for world peace and then the tamera will ask them to share their work and what they saw with members at one night. The tamera encourages members in  doing something in the art, such as singing, dancing and painting. The art centre I shared before will aperiodicity open for members to draw. When one course finishes, the tamera will hold a party. Besides that, there are many activities holding by the visitors, such as dancing training, singing and praying in Middle East ceremony.

10. The civilization: The sanitary environment is not good as our community. I think it is because the members are lack of the consciousness of keeping the community clean. It is clean in major aspects but not good in the details. Besides that, I think some places of the tamera lack the full - time people to clean. There's almost no waste in diet. Every member eat what they need. After dinner, there were no leftovers on the plate. It seems to be a good habit for the Germans. It allows members smoking here, and some members smoke. People and people get well along with each other and  respect each other.

11. Children's education: Because the Portuguese government had not recognized the community to build private schools, all the children went to public schools. Now it is heard that the tamera is going to apply for the community school.

Children's  support : Some of the children were taken care by full-time members, some were taken care by their parents.

  

This is a second-hand clothes shop, including a reworking old clothes workshop.

   
13. Members' living conditions: There are no overall plans for members' living. Some people live in separate houses, some people live in motorhomes. Some live in the dormitory. When a man and a woman need a place to  solely stay with each other, the community will provide them a special place.