The Catholic Church of Yerkalo also Yanjing Catholic Church ( zh, t=鹽井天主敎堂, s=盐井天主教堂, p=Yánjǐng tiānzhǔ jiàotáng) is a Christian church located in Yerkalo (

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

: Tsakalo, Wylie: tsha kha lho, meaning "salt pit"), a village between 2650 and 3109 meters above sea level at the southern end of Markham County (

Chamdo Chamdo, officially Qamdo () and also known in Chinese as Changdu, is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karuo District. Chamdo is Tibet's third largest city ...

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...

) in present-day

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

History

It was founded in 1865 by Félix Biet and

Auguste Desgodins Auguste Desgodins (16 October 1826, in Manheulles – 14 March 1913, in Pedong) was a French missionary who attempted to enter into Tibet in the early 1860s. While both Desgodins and his colleague, the Vicar Apostolic Thomine-Desmazures were gran ...

, French missionaries of the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (french: Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris, short M.E.P.) is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons ...

. The mission was based in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

but some of its missionaries opted to proselytize in Tibet. Within a few years, Tibetan marauders supported by Buddhist lamas killed 10 priests and destroyed all but one Catholic mission which was based in Yanjing. Bringing with them thirty-five of their faithful, having been expelled from the main mission of Bonga in Yerkalo, conquered by the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, were legally established in some plots of land with the complicity of the population and silence of local officials. Historically, China and Tibet disputed the possession of the Yerkalo saline wells, which passed from one side or the other of the Sino-Tibetan border. Finally, in 1932, the village was placed under the Tibetan Government in

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

. According to the Xinhua news agency, the establishment of a small Catholic parish in Tibet was not an easy task. Enmity from the local

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

monks from the

Karma Gon Monastery Karma Gon Monastery, ( ; ) the original monastery of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, was founded in the 12th century by Düsum Khyenpa, the 1st Karmapa Lama in eastern Tibet at the age of 76. Karma Gon (''karma dgon'', also ''Karma Da ...

culminated in the killing of one of Father Biet's successors,

Maurice Tornay Maurice Tornay (31 August 1910 – 11 August 1949) was a Swiss Roman Catholic priest of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine – of the Hospitallers of Saint Nicholas and Grand-St-Bernard of Mont Joux branch – who served as part of the missions ...

in August 11, 1949.

Architecture

The exterior of the church features traditional Tibetan design while the interior has European

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

designs. The church holds weekly services in the Tibetan language. As of 2014, the church had one priest, two sisters and serves a estimated 559 worshippers around the area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerkalo, Church Roman Catholic churches in Tibet Chamdo Catholic Church in Sichuan

History

Architecture

See also

References