I remember someone asking me once why a statue of Guan Yin Bodhisattva was in the middle of the Buddha Hall rather than that of a Buddha. I think I vaguely answered something like, this is a Way-place in which Guan Yin Bodhisattva holds a place of primary importance and several of the other DRBA monasteries are other bodhisattvas’ way-places, like the 4 holy mountains in China. Which may not be wrong, but it was probably more confusing than clarifying and it didn't answer the question of why Guan Yin Bodhisattva was important.
Perhaps a better and clearer answer can be found in the Ven. Master’s talk during a Guan Yin session (http://www.cttbusa.org/dharmatalks/guanyin.htm). He says in there that Guan Yin Bodhisattva has a great affinity with living beings in the Saha world and holds a very important place in Mahayana Buddhism. He also explains the way the Guan Yin Dharma door works and why we should cultivate it.
The way I answered the question about the Guan Yin statue, though, seems to illustrate an easy mistake to make, which was that I answered without really thinking about what the questioner wanted to know and got lost in some arcane stuff that most newcomers to Buddhism wouldn't find useful anyway, instead of bringing it back to how it related to Buddhism and spiritual practice. And I think that in putting together a biography (or more than one) of the Venerable Master we need to think not just about how to fit the information and stories in but also how to show the principles, values, and teachings of the Venerable Master's life when we're doing it.
Picture from: http://www.drby.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/img_0629-200x300.jpg
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