From bodad's link:

"The photo appears to be from the 2001 filming in Lhasa of "The Touch," starring Michelle Yeoh, who said on her blog at the time that the filmmakers used 2,500 extras because they couldn't find enough genuine lamas, a situation captured by photographer Yuan Rongzhao on his blog.

Former armed police corps member Tao Yongjun, an extra in the film, said that if he and the others serving as extras had been trying to hide anything they would not have been so conspicuous in handling the monks' robes."