In 1931, a Dutch artist and scholar of Hindu and Buddhist architecture, W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp, developed a theory that Kedu Plain was once a lake and Borobudur initially represented a lotus flower floating on the lake [REF].
Nieuwenkamp has suggested that the landscape near Borobudur included lakes, and that the temples were arranged around these lakes in form of flowers and mathematical patterns considered to be auspicious, and that the temples were connected by paved brick roads lined by walls.