The recognition of the suture zone was an important step to understand the plate tectonics theory. In the Himalaya, several suture zones are described: the main one is the Indus Yarlung Tsangpo suture zone that runs along the 2,500 km of the internal part of the Himalayan belt from Pakistan to Namche Barwa. Another type of suture, less continuous, comes from the fact that oceanic lithosphere has locally thrust towards the south on top of the northern Indian passive margin, on the Permian to Paleocene–Eocene sediments. North of the Ladakh batholith lies the Shyok suture zone that separates the Karakorum batholith intruded on the Asian continental margin from the Kohistan–Ladakh batholith that was a magmatic arc developed either on oceanic or continental crust. The Shyok suture is then considered as a back arc ophiolite.