[1] Felix Carey,[2] missionary in Burma 1806–1812, describes the process as follows: When a person of royal extraction is to receive a capital punishment, it is generally done by drowning; in the first place the person is tied hands and feet, then sewed up in a red bag, which again is sometimes put into a jar, and thus the prisoner is lowered down into the water, with a weight sufficient to sink him.
For example, in the former Sultanate of Pattani, in nowadays southern Thailand one rebel, Tuk Mir, was drowned in the sea, out of respect for his recognized status as Syed, that is, a direct descendant of Muhammad.
[5] Within the Ottoman Empire, it became, for some time, a practice to execute the brothers of the chosen sultan in order to prevent political succession crises; but these members of the royal family were typically strangled or drowned, so that their blood would not be shed.
[9] In 1580 Nuremberg, the executioner Franz Schmidt (who left a diary over his professional career from 1573 to 1617), used his influence to abolish the penalty of drowning, persuading the authorities to use hanging or beheading instead.
In a recent example, the unrecognized Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executed captured Iraqi prisoners by drowning them in a cage in June 2015.