Dalai Lama’s Representative in South Africa Narrowly Escapes Death in Second Firebomb Attack
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 16 Oct: Dhundup Gyalpo, the representative of the Dalai Lama at the Office of Tibet in South Africa, said he narrowly escaped death after petrol bombs set his residence and office ablaze on Wednesday night, marking the second such attack on the property in just over three months, the Daily Maverick reported.
The attack occurred at around 11.15 p.m. on 14 October at the property in Lyttelton Manor, Centurion, where petrol bombs were thrown through the windows, according to the report.
Gyalpo said he woke to the sound of shattering glass in another room. When he opened his bedroom door, he found the house filled with dense smoke. Trapped inside, he shut the door, smashed his bedroom window and climbed out to safety.
“I nearly lost my life from smoke inhalation last night. I somehow managed to break the window and get out,” Gyalpo told the Daily Maverick on Thursday morning. He sustained minor injuries after stepping on broken glass while fleeing the house.
After escaping, Gyalpo spotted an unexploded petrol bomb hanging from a window frame. The fire destroyed much of the main residence, including furniture and office documents, rendering the building uninhabitable. A spiritual teacher staying in an adjacent cottage escaped unharmed, and the cottage was not damaged.
Tshwane Emergency Services and ADT security responded to the incident, with emergency crews being dispatched to extinguish the blaze.
The latest attack follows an earlier incident on 6 July, the Dalai Lama’s 91st birthday, when three petrol bombs were thrown at the same property. Gyalpo told the publication that one exploded on the concrete steps without causing damage, while the other two failed to detonate.
He reported the July incident to the police but chose not to make it public at the time. Following Wednesday’s attack, however, he said he could no longer keep it secret.
“This time I can’t keep it a secret,” he said.
Gyalpo believes the latest attack was intended to cause harm rather than facilitate a robbery. He told the Daily Maverick that the petrol bombs had been thrown directly through the windows of the office compound, suggesting that the perpetrators were attempting to convey a political message.
He also raised concerns about the possible involvement of wider political forces, arguing that there was little apparent hostility towards Tibetans among the South African public. He noted that awareness of Tibet remained limited among many South Africans, while those familiar with the situation were largely sympathetic. However, the motive behind the attack had not been established at the time of reporting.
South African police were investigating the incident, while Clayson Monyela of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation declined to comment to the Daily Maverick, describing it as a policing matter.
Despite the attack, Gyalpo said he would continue his work as the Dalai Lama’s representative in South Africa, emphasising his responsibility to promote the spiritual leader’s message of nonviolence, peace and compassion.
“If the aim is to intimidate me, it’s not going to work,” Gyalpo said, adding that he had done nothing political that would put the South African government in a difficult position.
The Office of Tibet, Pretoria, is the official agency of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), commonly known as the Tibetan Government in-exile, based in Dharamsala, India. It was formally opened in 1997, when Nelson Mandel was the President of South Africa. It is one of the 13 such officies around the world, including those in New Delhi, Kathmandu, Geneva, Washington, Tokyo, London, Brussels, Canberra, Moscow, Taipei, and Brazil.
