A country boy up to engage a spiritual leader (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
dalai lama
'a spiritual leader' is the definition.
(Tibetan spiritual leader)
'a country boy up' is the wordplay.
'a country' becomes 'amalia' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'boy' becomes 'lad' (informal term for boy).
'up' says the letters should be written in reverse (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'amalia'+'lad'='amalialad'
'amalialad' backwards is 'DALAI LAMA'.
'to engage' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dalai lama that I've seen before include "Spiritual leader of Tibetans" , "'Spiritual leader of Tibet (5,4)'" , "Tibetan Buddhist leader, meaning ocean monk" , "World's Buddhist leader, once ruler of Tibet" , "Tibetan religious leader" .)