For viewers around the world familiar with the non-violence preached by the Dalai Lama, the images of Tibetan rioters attacking Chinese shops – and in some cases ethnic Chinese people - in and around Tibet this week were surprising. But for the Tibetan community, they were a reminder of the decades-old debate about what the Tibetan freedom movement is about and how it should be achieved.

“There’s never been a lack of debate within the Tibetan community about what the objective should be,” says Thupten Gyabso, a 39-year-old Tibetan exiled in Paris and head of the Association of the Tibetan Community in Paris.

On Thursday, the Dalai Lama said he was ready to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao over the crisis in Tibet if he got "concrete indications" Beijing was ready to talk. But the Tibetan leader – who favors “autonomy” for Tibet rather than full independence - has been criticized by some Tibetan protest groups who say he is too soft on China.

The Dalai Lama denies accusations by China that his government-in-exile has a role in the protests in Lhasa and in the other Chinese cities where the Tibetan minority has staged demonstrations over the past 10 days. He went as far as suggesting he would resign as a political leader if Tibetans didn’t return to peaceful resistance.

“This is a threat His Holiness has used before, like in 1989,” explains Gyabso. “Not because he is a coward, but because as a monk, he does not support violence.”

The official Tibetan position was defined by the Dalai Lama in a 1988 speech he gave to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, when he officially renounced the struggle for independence in favor of the creation of a “democratic and autonomous political entity.”

But, says Katia Buffetrille, a Tibet specialist at the Paris-based School for Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), “there’s a part of the Tibetan population that’s been feeling like this very moderate politics hasn’t achieved anything, and that after years of frustration and despair, the only solution may be violence.”

Economic issues as well as political

With a Chinese news blackout restricting information in Tibet and affected Chinese provinces, it’s hard to know for sure what exactly triggered the demonstrations. But many Tibetans say it is as much a bread-and-butter issue as a political one.

A 28-year-old Tibetan man from Lhasa told the AFP: “If life was ok, Tibetan people would have no need to demonstrate on the streets. But they have nothing to lose. Their lives are hardly worth living. So they’re not afraid to die. Life is that bad for most Tibetans.”

For Tibetans in exile – who are removed from the day-to-day realities of life in Tibet - the question mostly remains political. “There are two different approaches,” explains Tashi Tsang, a 22-year-old restaurant owner who was born in Tibet but now lives in Paris. “There are the older Tibetans, who follow the way of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And there are people like me who are younger and want to obtain a complete independence from the Chinese.” Tsang said he understood the frustrations among Tibetans that led to the violence.

Jampal Chosang, the Dalai Lama’s representative in Paris, agrees that there is a generational divide among Tibetans in exile, but says that’s not specific to the Tibetan community. “In any community, the youth is hot-blooded and they think about their actions without thinking about their future consequences,” Chosang said.

But others, like Lhadon Tethong, executive director of the New York-based group Students for a Free Tibet, say the question of violence versus non-violence is one that all Tibetans wrestle with, regardless of age. “The Tibetans are human,” Tethong says. “They see that violence brings the concern of the international community in a way that non-violence cannot. But many people wish for this to be solved through dialogue.”

If there is a generational factor, Tethong adds, it is in the willingness to be more vocal about the issue. “Most of us were raised in exile in democratic countries and it encourages us to be more honest,” she says.

Both Tethong and Buffetrille say that Chinese censorship could be shaping the way the protests are perceived around the world. They note that the only images released by the Chinese media this week show violence by the Tibetan protesters. “ That’s a way of asking the world what kind of government would accept such things but also to show the Chinese population how ungrateful the Tibetans are.”