Kris wedge or sliver. "Kris" is the more frequently used spelling in the West, but "keris" is more popular in the dagger's native lands, as exemplified by the late Bambang Harsrinuksmo's popular book entitled "Ensiklopedi Keris" (Kris Encyclopedia). Two notable exceptions are the Philippines where it is usually called "kalis" or "kris" (although the Filipino "kalis" is a sword, rather than a dagger), and Thailand where it is always spelled kris and pronounced either as "kris" or "krit". In the Yala dialect the word is "kareh". Other spellings used by European colonists include "cryse", "crise", "criss", "kriss" and "creese." Kris history
Kris of Knaud bears scenes from the Ramayana on an unusual thin copper layer which partially covers it. Charles Knaud (Batavia 1840 - Amsterdam 1897) was a Dutch physician and dukun (shaman) at the court of Yogyakarta. Knaud, who had studied Javanese mysticism, treated and cured the son of Paku Alam V (1878-1900), ruler of the hereditary Pakualaman principality in the Sultanate of Yogyakarta, of what the ruler believed to be "guna guna" (black magic). For saving his son's life Paku Alam V granted him a prestigious heirloom, a kris. It was the oldest kris in the prince's collection. From 1903, the kris