BEIJING, 21 Feb., 96 (AP) -- Ten Tibetan prisoners, most being held for political crimes, escaped after throwing chili powder in the eyes of armed Chinese guards and fighting with their driver, a monitoring group reported today.

The group included four Tibetan monks jailed for protesting China's meddling in the naming of a 6-year-old boy as Tibet's second most important religious figure, the London-based Tibet Information Network said.

Beijing forced Tibet's religious hierarchy last November to reject a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, and appoint another child as the Panchen Lama.

Reports of anti-Chinese protests in the Himalayan region have surfaced sporadically since the boy was enthroned Dec. 8.

Tibet Information Network called the accounts of the four monks' arrests and their escape - given by Tibetans who recently arrived in India - the most detailed it has received of recent unrest.

Monks Lobsang Gawa and Tenzin Yeshe were arrested in December after they put up posters about the Panchen Lama in Toelung Tsome, 25 miles north of Tibet's capital, Lhasa, the group said.

Two other monks, Kalsang Wangdu and Jampa Damdrul, were arrested in early January in another town for questioning the authenticity of the Chinese-backed Panchen Lama.

The four monks and six others were being taken in the back of a truck from Lhasa to Tibet's No. 2 prison in Kongpo, 300 miles to the east, around Jan. 22, the group said.

The Tibetans threw chili powder into the eyes of the two armed guards in the truck and then fought with the driver. He was killed when the truck veered off the road and into a river, the group said, but it was unclear whether the Tibetans killed him deliberately.