John Sanday

Asia and Pacific Programs Director

John Sanday joined Global Heritage Fund in 2007 as Director for Asia and Pacific Programs. John is the Project Director for Banteay Chhmar in Cambodia and is also responsible for project oversight, quality assessment, monitoring and reporting, new project investigations and helping to secure in-country matching funding for select GHF projects in the Asia-Pacific region.

John Sanday is a British architect who has spent the last 36 years living and working in Nepal. As one of the leading architectural conservators in Asia, he has traveled and worked all over the sub-continent on a wide assortment of historic buildings: monasteries in the high Himalaya, Palaces in India, and since 1989 in the monuments of Angkor, Cambodia. John’s most recent commissions are in Mustang, Nepal and Bumthang, Bhutan, where John has created programs to train young professionals and craftsmen to master the skills of conserving and repairing their own cultural heritage. These teams will take on the responsibility to maintain their architectural masterpieces rather than the common practice of reconstructing them in new materials. 

In recognition of his contribution to developing training programs and conserving many significant Asian historic buildings and sites, John has been elected a fellow of the illustrious society of Antiquaries, London and more recently awarded by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contribution to architectural conservation and training, especially in Cambodia and Nepal.