BEIJING — Security forces in Tibet have arrested 16 Buddhist monks on charges of planning or carrying out separatist bombings that authorities said were inspired by propaganda from the Dalai Lama, the New China News Agency reported yesterday.

The arrests, which the official agency said took place in May, refocused attention on Tibet after nearly a month during which the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province has dominated news from China and eclipsed a still-intense security crackdown in the restive mountain region.

Since rioting March 14 in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, security forces have arrested scores of Tibetans, many of them monks, and sentenced them to prison for crimes including arson, murder, and inciting subversion against the state. In addition, thousands of monks have been forced to undergo what authorities call patriotic education, designed to inspire loyalty to Beijing’s rule and discourage support for the Dalai Lama and his exile group in India.

A group of Hong Kong and other Chinese-language reporters allowed into Tibet this week on a government-supervised trip said they saw armed police posted at major intersections in Lhasa. The police had been withdrawn earlier, they reported, but returned in force because of what authorities in Lhasa said were fears of renewed unrest before the Olympic Torch relay passes through later this month.

In addition, authorities said they feared unrest could bubble up again as thousands of Buddhist pilgrims gather in Lhasa beginning this week for the annual Saga Dawa festival, marking the Buddha’s birthday according to the Tibetan calendar. “It cannot be ruled out that there will be some bad people who will try to sabotage the event,” Tibet’s executive deputy chairman, Pelma Trilek, told the visiting journalists.