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Siliciclastic sedimentary rocks derived from the southern Lhasa terrane, sitting depositionally upon rocks of the northern Indian passive continental margin, provide an estimate of the age of initial contact between the continental parts of the Indian and Asian plates. We report sedimentological, sedimentary petrological, and geochronological data from Upper Cretaceous‐Paleocene strata in the Sangdanlin section, located along the southern flank of the Indus‐Yarlung suture zone in southern Tibet. This is probably the most proximal, and therefore the oldest, record of the India‐Asia collision. These strata were deposited by high‐density turbidity currents (or concentrated density flows) and suspension settling of pelagic biogenic debris in a deep‐marine setting. An abrupt change from quartz‐arenitic to feldspatholithic sandstone compositions marks the transition from Indian to Asian sediment provenance. The abrupt …