Computing Monk Deaths in Pol Pot Period

Soon after the overthrow of the Pol Pot regime the Kampuchean United Front for Construction and Defence of the Motherland established a research committee under the directorship of Min Khin. It engaged in the first detailed analysis of the number of monks killed and pagoda destroyed by "Beijing and their servants: Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan on the Cambodian people during 1975-1978." the committee's brief alone indicates that it had entered ideological territory. Indeed, soon after the report was published a conference of 300" intellectual and religious people" was held to discuss its findings on 12 September 1983. Among other measures, they decided to institute an annual national Day for Tying Anger (t’ veer chong kamhaeng) on 20 May, usually referred to in English as a day of Anger.
In terms of methodology Min Khin's estimates were based on the analysis of reports received from 19 provinces and towns, supplemented by an investigation of “all kinds of [unspecified] documents”. The results are given in the first two columns of the following table: 

Province	Number of Monks Monks Killed 1975-1978	Number of Pagodas	Average Monk Deaths/Pagoda
Battambang	1,525	252	6.05
Kratie	288	68	4.24
Stung Treng	31	21	1.48
Prey Veng	2’572	387	6.65
Kampong Speu	4,031	152	26.52
Preah Vihear	172	10	17.20
SiemReap/Oddar Meanchey	20	-	-
Kampong Cham	3,960	462	8.57
Pursat	374	96	3.90
Kampong Chhnang	925	167	5.54
Kamong Som	115	-	-
Phnom Penh	1,798	76	23.66
Takeo	5,673	276	2.55
Kampot	552	172	3.21
Mondul Kiri	160	3	53.33
Koh Kong	882	24	36.76
Kampong Thom	1,819	179	10.16
Svay Rieng	234	192	1.22
Kandal	429	350	1.23
Total	25,168	3,202	7.86

Fewer than 2,000 monks may have survived Democratic Kampuchea out of the previous total of 65,000. On the other hand, claims a figure of 100 monastic survivors, the majority in Vietnamese exile, while some official sources give a much lower figure of 12 monks to have remained in robes until the end of the Democratic Kampuchea period, eg.:

Year	Active Wats	No. of Monks	Min Khin: about 63% of monks died or were executed by the Pol Pot regime. In April 1981 Ven.Tep Vong had also reported the existence of around 3,000 monks in the country. He said that 800 of these (26.66%) were in robes before 1975.
1969	3,369	65.062
1979	n/a	12
1980	n/a	770
1984	1,895	3,200
1989	2,800	c. 10,000
1992	3,089	26,257
1995	3,371 Mahanikay	40,916 Mahanikay	—of which 23,630 were novices
	81 Thommayut	1,095 Thommayut	—of which 522 were novices
Source: Center for Advanced Studies and the Ministry of Cults and Religious Affairs published in Cambodia Report II March-April 1996.

Buddhism under Pol Pot by Ian Harris