Charm Tibetan leader with performing animals (8)
I believe the answer is:
talisman
'charm' is the definition.
(I know that talisman is a type of charm)
'tibetan leader with performing animals' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'performing' indicates an anagram.
The initial letter of 'tibetan' is 't'.
'animals' anagrammed gives 'alisman'.
't'+'alisman'='TALISMAN'
(Other definitions for talisman that I've seen before include "Protective charm" , "Mascot" , "Object supposed to guard against evil" , "It's said to be a protection against evil" , "Lucky thing" .)