The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word LHASA
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
L
H
A
S
A
More clues leading to the result LHASA
- Fools seen within the French city
- Far-eastern city in Nepal has appeal
- One city has merged into another
- Pound keeps key high-level capital
- Capital has to be banked in US city
- Far Eastern city in Nepal has appeared
- Setting for 22 15’s 9 has to be in a big city
- City hospital has adjoining houses
- Luxembourg’s a capital
- Originally, lama is blessed with a place in Tibet
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "particularly sacred place" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case particularly sacred place = lhasa.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.