ObjectivernThe giant Nyainqentanglha granitic batholith, located in the Lhasa Terrane, is the youngest granite pluton emplaced at 18.3–11.0 Ma during the Miocene epoch. A series of NE-striking sinistral normal ductile shear zones developed on its north and south sides. The ductile shear zones are considered to be the west boundary faults of the Yadong-Gulu rift system and have the potential to provide critical temporal constraints for the large-scale East–West extension event in the Tibetan Plateau. Based on deformation ages of the south Nyainqentanglha ductile shear zone, it was suggested that the E–W extension took place no later than 8.6 Ma, probably at 11 Ma, and reached the peak at around 8 Ma. We have performed a high-precision geochronological analysis of hydrothermal zircons from the north Nyainqentanglha ductile shear zone collected, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time. The new data provide satisfying constraints on the inception of the EW extension and the tectonic evolutionary history of the Tibetan Plateau during the Cenozoic.