Editing Decapitation (section)

=== Asia ===
==== Azerbaijan ====
During the [[2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes]], Yazidi-Armenian serviceman [[Kyaram Sloyan]] was decapitated by Azerbaijani servicemen.<ref name="Azatutyun">{{cite news |date=11 April 2016 |title=Armenian Soldier Reburied |agency=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] Armenian Service |url=http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27665737.html |access-date=6 July 2022 |archive-date=14 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414020202/http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27665737.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="suntimes">{{cite news |last1=Beliakov |first1=Dmitry |last2=Franchetti |first2=Mark |date=10 April 2016 |title=Former Russian states on brink of renewing war |work=[[The Sunday Times]] |url=http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Middle_East/article1686450.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2016_04_09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419152207/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Middle_East/article1686450.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2016_04_09 |archive-date=19 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kerkonian |first=Karnig |date=2016-05-19 |title=Illinois voters support Senator Kirk's call for pro-peace measures in Nagorno-Karabakh |url=https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/280472-illinois-voters-support-senator-kirks-call-for-pro-peace/ |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=The Hill |language=en-US |archive-date=6 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706212830/https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/280472-illinois-voters-support-senator-kirks-call-for-pro-peace/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Several reports of decapitation, along with other types of mutilation of Armenian POWs by Azerbaijani soldiers, emerged in 2020 during the [[Second Nagorno-Karabakh War]].<ref name="ArmenianPOWs">{{cite web |date=2 December 2020 |title=Azerbaijan: Armenian Prisoners of War Badly Mistreated |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/02/azerbaijan-armenian-prisoners-war-badly-mistreated |access-date=9 December 2020 |work=[[Human Rights Watch]] |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223105015/https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/02/azerbaijan-armenian-prisoners-war-badly-mistreated |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== China ====
[[File:Caishikou Beheaded Corpses2.jpeg|thumb|Ranked beheaded bodies on the ground, in [[Caishikou Execution Grounds|Caishikou]], [[Beijing]], China, 1905]]
In traditional [[China]], decapitation was considered a more severe form of punishment than [[strangulation]], although strangulation caused more prolonged suffering. This was because in [[Confucius|Confucian]] tradition, a person's body was a gift from their parents, and so it was therefore disrespectful to their ancestors to return their bodies to the grave dismembered. The Chinese, however, had other punishments, such as dismembering the body into multiple pieces (similar to the English [[hanged, drawn and quartered|quartering]]). In addition, there was also a practice of [[Waist chop|cutting the body at the waist]], which was a common method of execution before being abolished in the early [[Qing dynasty]] due to the lingering death it caused. In some tales, people did not die immediately after decapitation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bbs.04gd.com/viewthread.php?tid=547&fpage=1 |title=原來斬頭係唔會即刻死既(仲識講野)中國有好多斬頭案例!! |access-date=25 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707054827/http://bbs.04gd.com/viewthread.php?tid=547&fpage=1 |archive-date=7 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://xn--gmq282eogn.cn/GB/kejiao/42/154/20030410/968308.html |title="无头人"挑战传统医学 人类还有个"腹脑"? |access-date=21 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803114144/http://xn--gmq282eogn.cn/GB/kejiao/42/154/20030410/968308.html |archive-date=3 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.66163.com/Fujian_w/news/fzwb/990124t/3-3.htm |title=福州晚報 |access-date=25 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019042249/http://www.66163.com/Fujian_w/news/fzwb/990124t/3-3.htm |archive-date=19 October 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cst21.com.cn/3/hrt.htm |title=换人头 |access-date=25 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090620030109/http://www.cst21.com.cn/3/hrt.htm |archive-date=20 June 2009 }}</ref>

==== India ====
The British officer [[John Masters]] recorded in his autobiography that [[Pashtun people|Pathans]] in British India during the [[Anglo-Afghan War]]s would behead enemy soldiers who were captured, such as British and Sikh soldiers.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhdbAAAAMAAJ |title=Bugles and a tiger: a volume of autobiography |first=John |last=Masters |year=1956 |publisher=Viking Press |page=190 |isbn=978-0-670-19450-6 |access-date=2 August 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031630/https://books.google.com/books?id=NhdbAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ln_jAAAAMAAJ |title=The Frontier Ablaze: The North-west Frontier Rising, 1897–98 |first1=Michael |last1=Barthorp |first2=Douglas N. |last2=Anderson |year=1996 |publisher=Windrow & Greene |isbn=978-1-85915-023-8 |page=12 |access-date=23 March 2016 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031549/https://books.google.com/books?id=ln_jAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRdbAAAAMAAJ |title=John Masters: a regimented life |first=John |last=Clay |year=1992 |publisher=Michael Joseph |location=[[University of Michigan]] |isbn=978-0-7181-2945-3 |page=62 |access-date=2 August 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608031550/https://books.google.com/books?id=oRdbAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Bugles and a Tiger |first=John |last=Masters |date=2002 |publisher=Cassell Military |isbn=978-0-304-36156-4 |page=190}}</ref>

The [[Execution of Sambhaji]] was a significant event in 17th-century [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] India, where the second [[Maratha Empire|Maratha]] King was put to death by order of the [[List of emperors of the Mughal Empire|Mughal emperor]] [[Aurangzeb]]. The conflicts between the [[Mughal Empire|Mughals]] and the [[Deccan sultanates|Deccan Sultanates]], which resulted in the downfall of the Sultanates, paved the way for tensions between the Marathas and the Mughals. Aurangzeb was drawn to Southern India due to the vanquished rebel [[Muhammad Akbar (Mughal prince)|Akbar]] fleeing to the Maratha monarch, [[Sambhaji]]. The Maratha King was then captured by the Mughal general [[Muqarrab Khan]]. Sambhaji and his minister [[Kavi Kalash]] were then taken to [[Tulapur]], where they were tortured to death.

==== Japan ====
[[File:Illustration of the Decapitation of Violent Chinese Soldiers by Utagawa Kokunimasa 1894.png|thumb|left|Japanese illustration depicting the beheading of Chinese captives. [[First Sino-Japanese War]]]]
[[File:Beheading of Leonard George Siffleet.jpg|thumb|Sgt. [[Leonard Siffleet]], an Australian [[POW]] captured in New Guinea, about to be beheaded by a Japanese soldier with a [[shin guntō]] sword, 1943]]
In [[Japan]], decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offences. [[Samurai]] were often allowed to decapitate soldiers who had fled from battle, as it was considered cowardly. Decapitation was historically performed as the second step in [[seppuku]] (ritual [[suicide]] by [[disembowelment]]). After the victim had sliced his own [[abdomen]] open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a [[katana]] to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck—to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a severed head rolling about, or towards them; such an occurrence would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out—avoiding dishonor to him and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored by taking part. In the late [[Sengoku period]], decapitation was performed as soon as the person chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen.

Decapitation (without seppuku) was also considered a very severe and degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that of {{ill|Sugitani Zenjubō|ja|杉谷善住坊}} (杉谷善住坊), who attempted to assassinate [[Oda Nobunaga]], a prominent ''[[daimyō]]'', in 1570.{{Disputed inline|date=November 2020}} After being caught, Zenjubō was buried alive in the ground with only his head out, and the head was slowly sawn off with a bamboo saw by passers-by for several days (punishment by sawing; {{ill|nokogiribiki|ja|鋸挽き|lt={{lang|ja-Latn|nokogiribiki|nocat=yes}}}} ({{lang|ja|鋸挽き}}).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%96%84%E4%BD%8F%E5%9D%8A-1085457 |title=善住坊とは |website=Kotobank.jp |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=21 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221145010/https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%96%84%E4%BD%8F%E5%9D%8A-1085457 |url-status=live }}</ref> These unusual punishments were abolished in the early [[Meiji period|Meiji]] era. A similar scene is described in the last page of James Clavell's book [[Shōgun (novel)|''Shōgun'']]{{Dubious|date=November 2020}}.

==== Korea ====
Historically, decapitation had been the most common method of execution in Korea, until it was replaced by [[hanging]] in 1896. Professional executioners were called {{Transliteration|ko|mangnani}} (망나니) and they were volunteered from death rows.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

==== Thailand ====
Decapitation was the main method of [[capital punishment in Thailand|execution in Thailand]], until it was replaced by [[Execution by shooting|shooting]] in 1934.

==== Vietnam ====
[[File:Trảm tù - Trung tâm Lưu trữ quốc gia I.jpg|thumb|Illustration of the beheading of a prisoner of the [[Nguyễn dynasty]] in the book [[Mechanics and Crafts of the People of Annam]]]]
[[File:Máy chém.jpg|thumb|Guillotine under [[Ngô Đình Diệm]], [[South Vietnam]]]]
Execution by beheading was one of the most common forms of execution in Vietnam under the feudal system. This form of execution still existed in the [[South Vietnam]] regime until 1962.