• When colonial powers and firearms (guns) entered Indonesia, the kris declined in use, but it continued to be important as a symbol of magical power in ritual contexts, such as the royal court.
• Nowadays it functions like a personal amulet, keeping evil forces away from the owner.
• The kris appears in wedding rituals, and other rituals where continuity with the past and with ancestors (and ancestor spirits) is important.
• The kris is thus an example of adat (tradition; mentioned at the start of this discussion). It comes from the pre-Muslim past, but it continues to have meaning in the setting of Islamized Indonesia.