In the NW Himalaya of India, high-grade metamorphic rocks of the High Himalayan Crystalline Zone (HHCZ) are exposed as a 50 km large dome along the Miyar and Gianbul valleys. This Gianbul dome is cored by migmatitic paragneiss formed at peak conditions around 750 degreesC and 8 kbar, and symmetrically surrounded by sillimanite, kyanite +/- staurolite, garnet, biotite, and chlorite Barrovian mineral zones. Thermobarometric and structural investigations reveal that the Gianbul dome results from a polyphase tectono-metamorphic evolution. The first phase corresponds to the NE-directed thrusting of the Shikar Beh nappe, that is responsible for the Barrovian prograde metamorphic field gradient in the southern limb of the dome. In the northern limb of the dome, the Barrovian prograde metamorphism is the consequence of a second tectonic phase, associated with the SW-directed thrusting of the Nyimaling-Tsarap nappe. Following these crustal thickening events, exhumation and doming of the HHCZ high-grade rocks were controlled by extension along the north-dipping Zanskar Shear Zone, in the frontal part of the Nyimaling-Tsarap nappe, as well as by coeval to late extension along the south-dipping Khanjar Shear Zone, in the southern limb of the Gianbul dome. Rapid syn-convergence extension along both of these detachments induced a nearly isothermal decompression, resulting in a high-temperature/low-pressure metamorphic overprint, as well as enhanced partial melting. Such a rapid exhumation within a compressional orogenic context appears unlikely to be controlled solely by granitic diapirism. Alternatively, large-scale doming in the Himalaya could reflect a sub-vertical ductile extrusion of partially melted rocks.