I’m standing in a field high in the little-visited Haa Valley in western Bhutan flicking milky water in the four cardinal directions with a sprig of juniper. The Bhutanese man next to me, dressed in a traditional black knee-length gho robe, tells me this ritual is known as lhab sang. It has roots in the Bon religion predating Buddhism, he says, and honours the spirits the Bhutanese believe reside in the mountains, rivers, trees and rocks.

Would I like to flick again?