Eastern (Mongolian) gambesons

Padded and quilted armor clothing was an important part of Eastern armor during any period and in any region. Oriental gambesons perfectly fit with Eastern lamellar and laminar armor and resemble civilian clothes differing only in thickness.

There were no Mongolian artifacts of the quilted defense found that clearly relate specifically to the Golden Horde armor. However, an abundance of such artifacts found in China, Korea, Rus, Persia, and other countries of the region indicates the widespread use of such protection.

Quilted lined with cotton/felt/fabric clothing was worn under armor and designed to cushion enemies’ blows and protect from the sun.

Oriental padded armor clothing’s cut was exactly resembling the cut of other oriental clothes so the “oriental gambeson” was a quilted robe or a quilted vest. The high-status warriors’ quilted protection was distinguished not by the cut type but by the high cost of the materials used and even more. For example, in the “Message of Genghis Khan”, it is indicated that according to legend Genghis Khan wore a simple canvas dress. His canvas caftan was stored as a treasure at the court of Mongol sovereigns in China. Thus, the cut and material of the quilted protection of nobility and ordinary people could be the same. Talking about materials - silk, cotton, leather, felt, wool, linen were typically used for Eastern quilted armor.

Interestingly, wearing too thick padded protection wasn’t traditional - warriors wore a few not too thick quilted robes on top of each other.

A quilted dressing gown belongs to Oriental armor set from the XII and up to the XVII century. 

A huge variety of quilted artifacts as well as their images and sculptures have been preserved:

For example, gazakhand of Arabian writer and commander Usama ibn Munqidh, XII century. Armor consisted of five layers: linen lining, mail of small rings, padded cotton layer, “Frankish mail” of big rings, and ornamented outer layer.

Chopcut – padded vest with vertical stitching on a common soldier of Bokharan town militia forces 

Various Central Asian, Mongolian and Far-Eastern padded under-vests and cuirasses

Kazakh warrior in padded armor, XVth-XVIth century

And don't forget about Ming paper armour. They were made of silk paper and functioned as a gambeson worn under other armour or by itself.

By the way, it was even still worn by the Hui people in Yunnan in the late XIXth century.