'salt pit'), a village between 2650 and 3109 meters above sea level at the southern end of Markham County (Chamdo, Tibet Autonomous Region) in present-day China.

It was founded as a chapel in 1865 by Félix Biet and Auguste Desgodins, French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, and dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,[3][4] patroness of the parish of Yerkalo.

Within a few years, Tibetan marauders supported by Buddhist lamas killed 10 priests and destroyed all but one Catholic mission which was based in Yerkalo.

[6] In 1939, the parish of Yerkalo received devotional statues of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Enmity from the local Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Karma Gon Monastery culminated in the killing of one of Father Biet's successors, Maurice Tornay in August 11, 1949.