Temples originally ordain circling around it as ritual (9)
I believe the answer is:
tradition
'ritual' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'temples originally ordain circling around it' is the wordplay.
'originally' indicates taking the first letters.
'circling' indicates an anagram.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
The first letter of 'temples' is 't'.
'ordain' with letters rearranged gives 'radion'.
'radion' going around 'it' is 'radition'.
't'+'radition'='TRADITION'
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for tradition that I've seen before include "Transmitted customs" , "Established custom" , "Custom passed on" , "Routine" , "Practice of long standing" .)