The Pamir-Tian Shan-Hindu Kush orogenic segment at the western edge of the India-Asia collision stands high, reaches deep, transitions from flat to rugged, deforms truly 3D, and stretches wide beyond the direct continental collision zone. Based on data from a cornucopia of geoscience disciplines, we show that mantle driving forces and distinct geometrical and rheological boundary conditions govern the tectonic evolution, i.e., the mantle-crust-surface and hinterland-foreland interactions. We will take the subduction of marginal Indian lithosphere underneath the Hindu Kush and the indentation of the Indian cratonic mantle lithosphere into Asian (Tajik-Tarim) lithosphere since 10-13 Ma as an example for processes in the mantle. We show what effects they have on the deep Pamir crust, the Afghan-Tajik foreland basin, and the Tian Shan; those effects are lithospheric foundering below the Pamir, gravitational spreading of the Pamir-plateau lithosphere, Afghan-Tajik foreland-basin inversion, rise of the modern Tian Shan, and Fergana and Tarim block rotation. Our dataset integrates observations from seismology, petrology, petrochronology, thermochronology, and structural geology.