The existence of the Subud Alpujarra group began decades ago with the arrival in Orgiva of Ronimund von Bissing and his wife Sophie.
This all happened years before I (Raymond Aitken, the presnt author of this website) became a member of the group in 2014.
Ronimund and Sophie returned to eternal life years ago, as did some of the other early pioneer Subud members, who together brought the Subud Alpujarra group into existence. The time has come for a project to gather and assemble together witness accounts, photos, and other archival material; to create a presentation of the history of the Subud Alpujarra group.
In the meantime, I have collected below some first traces of the life of Ronimund and Sophie.
Presently the total membership is about 55 members, with roughly an equal divide between men and women, and comprising: 36 local resident members; 9 non-local resident members; plus 10 non-resident regular visitors from abroad.
The membership of what became the Subud Alpujarra Group, has since its very beginning, starting with the arrival of the Von Bissings in Orgiva, been predominantly composed of foreigners. However, in recent years the Subud Alpujarra group has been blessed by the arrival of many new Spanish members.
The diverse inter-nationality of the group's membership is also reflected in the demographics of the municipality of Orgiva itself, as well as in the other surrounding Alpujarra communities.
The Subud Alpujarra group comprises a wide diversity of nationalities (American, Australian, Austrian, Belgium, Colombian, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Irish, Israeli, Scottish, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss); as well as a wide enriching diversity of character types, generational cohorts and religions.
Spoken and written communications within the group are carried out simultaneously in both English and Spanish.
This wide diversity of membership nationality means that, unlike typical local groups in Subud, the culture of Subud Alpujarra group is "internationalised", leading to a higher than usual interaction and initiatives at the international level of Subud.
The Muhammad Subuh Foundation (MSF) is the foundation established by the World Subud Association (WSA) for the long-term development of Subud.
The Subud Alpujarra Association received significant co-funding from MSF on two occasions: (1) for the reconstruction of a farm building that became the present Subud centre, and (2) for the purchase of adjoining land to obtain further planning permissions, including future additional legalisation of the Subud centre.
In order to operate a bank account and acquire legal ownership of the Subud centre Órgiva, on behalf of the members, our Subud group registered a legal association with the Regional Government of Andalusia.
Here are the legal, financial and administrative details of the association:
Name of the association: Asociación Subud Alpujarra
Numero de Identificación Fiscal: G1956755l
Bank details:
IBAN: ES66 3023 0066 4061 3920 9008
Account name: Asociación Subud Alpujarra
Bank address: Caja Rural de Granada, Órgiva
Postal address:
Calle Sierra Nevada, 2, -2, Órgiva, 18400 Provincia de Granada, España