Relative in awful tank top departed for university in the Himalayas (8)
I believe the answer is:
katmandu
'the himalayas' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'relative in awful tank top departed for university' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'relative' could be 'ma' (ma is a kind of relative) and 'ma' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'tank' is 'katn' which is within the left over letters.
'university' could be 'u' (abbreviation for university) and 'u' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'd' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for katmandu that I've seen before include "foreign capital" , "Nepalese capital (alt. spelling)" , "Nepal capital (alternative spelling)" , "eastern city" , "Capital of Nepal (older spelling)" .)