Pictures Of Triplets: Dangerous

Near sunset one afternoon I unthinkingly took pictures of three kids—nautical engineers and their boats.

In a hurry and without thinking I took a picture of all of them at once, breaking a Khmer rule, and potentially endangering one of the children.

Many Cambodians believe that the middle person in a group of three will suffer bad luck in some form; some believe that they will die.

How old is this belief? Carvings at Angkor Wat give rise to speculation that it has been around a long time.

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I was browsing my pictures from the past month and I came upon one of three young nautical engineers I encountered along the river road in Kampong Cham. I remember that it was late afternoon, and that the kids were in front of their houses, each carrying a carved wooden boat masted with feathers.

The light was golden, the sun setting rapidly and I stopped, hoping I could take a few pictures before it failed completely. I turned my motorcycle into the front yard of one house where two of the kids stood with their parents. They looked at me expectantly. I am sure that I was an unusual, if not a threatening sight: big, helmeted, dirty and sweaty from travel, but their smiles never wavered. That's Cambodia.

Speaking Khmer, I rushed immediately to my request. In retrospect I should at least have given them a "how are you"! But I said: "Can I please take a picture of the children and their boats?" They smiled and said yes. "I will give them 1000 riel each," I said. That was probably unnecessary, but the offer broadened the kids’ smiles.

Down near the house we were in full shadow, and I knew if we were to catch that dropping sun and its fall of golden light, we needed to go back up to the road where the slanting light pooled. The kids were accommodating, but called their friend from next door to join us. After they lined up, I clicked one picture but found I had not turned the camera on. As I fumbled with the knob their smiles got bigger. In the end, I got the pictures, gave them the money, and spoke for a few minutes with their parents as the sun dropped away and the road darkened.

But last night as I browsed the pictures from last month's trip it hit me: there were three kids in that picture. In Cambodia, you don't do that. There is a wide-spread belief that it is bad luck to have a picture taken of three people. Some Cambodians won't let you take the picture. One person, two, four or more, no problem, but three is unlucky. Something bad will happen to one of the three.

I remember taking a picture of my landlady and two of her middle-aged friends at a Buddhist temple two years ago where we were participating in a festival. At the moment I took the picture, I realized what I was doing, and felt a rush of shame, but they said nothing. One of the ladies, our next door neighbor, did disappear that year, but she had won the green card lottery in the US and she and her family left Cambodia for good. The other two ladies (and their families) are still in Cambodia and are doing fine. I haven't asked them, but if they thought about it, maybe their bad luck was not have as good as their friend? Even as I write this I know that I am trying to minimize my responsibility; trying to offer facts in extenuation and mitigation in a way that more than hints of cravenness.

The fact is, I have encountered this belief across Cambodia and I know I was wrong. If I hadn't been so obsessed about getting those pictures and catching that light, I wouldn't have done it; I would have been patient and taken the kid's pictures one by one, as I did in the end. The light lasted long enough.

I look at that picture of those three kids and now notice that they did not cluster together, as groups almost always do who are to have their picture taken. I wonder if subconsciously they were thinking that they were not there to have their picture taken together, just to have their pictures taken. Just a thought, seeing how they ended up standing so far apart from each other.

How old is the belief? How deep are its roots? During a recent trip to Angkor Wat I looked at all of those Apsara (dancing maidens) carved, it seemed, on every wall and corner. Counting them, I noticed single carvings, twos, fours and fives, and I thought, "Wow, not a single group of three Apsara." But then I found one triplet. Only one grouping of three Apsara among hundreds. Makes you wonder a bit. Or maybe not. :)

I do hope those kids are okay. I worry still, even though it is hard to believe that three's are dangerous in any way.

Do you remember the comment of the physicist about the horseshoe above his door? "No I don't think that it will bring me good luck, but I heard that it does bring good luck even to people who don't believe it will." (Neils Bohr: One version of this story.)

My worry is little like his hope. Anyway, if you can: when you visit Cambodia, try not to take pictures in threes! And I will try to do better.