Source: The Buddhist Channel/Lexington Herald-Leader
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=61,8204,0,0,1,0
In an office at The University Press of Kentucky, one would never expect to find the birthplace of a Buddhist community. But in the cluttered room littered with prayer flags and adorned with stunning pictures of Tibetan mountains and monasteries, Richard Farkas eases into his chair and speaks easily about his faith.
Farkas is the founder and self-proclaimed facilitator of the Tibetan Buddhist Community of Lexington. For more than a year, his small community of practicing Buddhists and those interested in Buddhism have come together to learn and grow in the Buddhist faith in a small shrine room inside Farkas' home, decorated with traditional Tibetan and Buddhist items such as candles, rugs, paintings of the Buddha and pictures of the Dalai Lama.
The fact that the Tibetan Buddhist Community of Lexington has survived for a year is very significant, Farkas said. According to the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2004, only 2 percent of the U.S. population is Buddhist.
The local community meets every Saturday morning at Farkas' home. Attendance has been as high as 30, but the average is 10.
Farkas has studied Buddhism for more than 10 years and has been a practicing Buddhist for seven. His faith has grown along with his interest in Buddhism, and he has traveled to Tibet twice and has met the 14th Dalai Lama.