Goddesses Lakshmi and Bhudevi and Their Active Presence in the Tamil Hindu Diaspora in the SF Bay Area: Will Climate Change Events Affect the Worship of Two Qualitatively Different Hindu Goddesses?

In the Tamil Hindu diaspora in the United States, this paper will explore the presence, the vitality, and the active worship of two Hindu goddesses, one who is very well known, the Goddess Lakshmi, who represents wealth, health, auspiciousness and alertness and one not as focused upon, Bhudevi, the earth goddess. This ethnographic research will focus on Tamil Hindu Americans of the San Francisco Bay Area. Very recently, in January 2025, the Los Angelos area was a site of intense fires which were out of control for weeks and was one of the fiercest fire storms ever in a populated area in California. How do these uncontrollable fires affect Hindu American’s worship of Bhudevi? Or the Goddess Lakshmi? These questions will be investigated through the triple interlaced lens of economics, ecology, and climate chaos.