A Buddhist monk shelters sailor in US state (7)
I believe the answer is:
alabama
'us state' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a buddhist monk shelters sailor' is the wordplay.
'buddhist monk' becomes 'lama' (I've seen this before).
'shelters' is an insertion indicator.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'lama' going around 'ab' is 'labama'.
'a'+'labama'='ALABAMA'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for alabama that I've seen before include "part of US" , "Birmingham area" , "US state on the Gulf of Mexico" , "Confederate state during the American Civil War" , "Somewhere in US" .)