The ray effects of the finite volume method (FVM) or discrete ordinates method (DOM) are known to show the non-physical oscillations usually observed in the solution of radiative heat transfer on a boundary. This wiggling behavior is caused by the finite discretization of the continuous control angle. This article proposes a combined procedure of the Monte-Carlo and finite-volume method (CMCFVM) for solving radiative heat transfer in absorbing, emitting, and anisotropically scattering medium to eliminate the wiggling behavior. To tackle the ray effect problem, which is especially pronounced in a medium with an isolated boundary heat source, the CMCFVM is suggested here and successfully applied to a two-dimensional irregular geometry. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.