The ongoing India‐Asia collision principally regulates the Cenozoic tectonic deformation of the Asian interior, and builds a far‐away but active spectacular intraplate orogen—Tian Shan. However, the deep processes and dynamics of far‐field deformation propagation and the resultant Tian Shan building remain ambiguous. Here, we construct systematic numerical models with variable thermo‐rheological properties of the orogen‐featured blocks and convergence rates, which reveal that the far‐field effect of India‐Asia collision on the Tian Shan building is strongly controlled by the direct collision of Indian lithospheric mantle with the rigid Tarim block beneath western Tibet. The model results, together with the well‐established geological and geophysical constraints, not only reconcile the first‐order crustal and lithospheric structures of the western Tibetan plateau and Tian Shan, but also confirm a >30 Myr time lag between the initial India‐Asia collision and the far‐field Tian Shan building.

The Pamir plateau protrudes ∼300 km between the Tajik‐ and Tarim‐basin lithosphere of Central Asia. Whether its salient location and shape are caused by forceful indentation of a promontory of Indian mantle lithosphere is debated. We present a new local‐seismicity and focal‐mechanism catalog, and a P‐wave velocity model of the eastern part of the collision system. The data suggest a south‐dipping Asian slab that overturns in its easternmost segment. The largest principal stress at depth acts normal on the slab and is orientated parallel to the plate convergence direction. In front (south) of the Asian slab, a volume of mantle with elevated velocities and lined by weak seismicity constitutes the postulated Indian mantle indenter. We propose that the indenter delaminates and overturns the Asian slab, underthrusts the Tarim lithosphere along a compressive transform boundary, and controls the location and shape of the Pamir plateau.

The deep crustal deformation in the east Pamir in response to the Cenozoic collision with the Tien Shan and the Tarim Basin is so far poorly constrained. We present new insights into the crustal structure of the east Pamir and its surrounding regions using P receiver functions from 40 temporary and permanent seismic stations. The crustal thickness reaches a maximum of 88 km beneath the central and southern east Pamir and decreases sharply to 50–60 km along the southern Tien Shan and to 41–50 km below the Tarim Basin. The most prominent crustal structures involve a double Moho, suggesting eastward underthrusting of the Pamir lower crust beneath southern east Pamir, and two Moho offsets, supporting delamination of Asian lower crust below the central east Pamir and pure shear shortening along the northeastern margin between the Pamir and Tarim Basin.